Walking down the Road of the DEAD, once more
by Ronin93
Summary: H.T.O.D Reboot: Starting from the beginning, they had a pretty good chance against the undead, but an ever changing disease and obstacles bring the fight for survival to a whole new level...luckily for them, they aren't the only survivors wanting to live.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: As you saw by the summary, this'll be my version of Highschool of the Dead with my own characters thrown in and my take on the events of H.O.T.D, and I will typically be using the same names for the chapters. If you don't like it, don't read it, so on and so forth. I don't own the series, yadda yadda, yadda, and there will be lemons later on, so you are warned. Oh, and I'm gonna start when Takashi goes and gets Rei from the classroom, sense that's were things really start acting out differently; also, I'll be skipping the switch overs to the other characters, because they play out just the same.**

**Chapter 1: Spring of the DEAD**

"H-hey! Were do you think you're going, Komuro!" yet another teacher yelled as Takashi ran right past him in the halls; he didn't have time to deal with anyone at the moment, having one thing on his mind.

Finally at his destination, Takashi tore open the door of class 2-B, making every one jump and turn to see who it was; Takashi was already walking straight to Rei, who, as soon as she realized who it was, jumped from her seat.

"Skipping class again, Komuro? Is it not enough for you, so you now have to disrupt other student's class time?" the teacher asked, bitterly, and continued talk, lecturing Takashi without really doing anything; Takashi ignored him though as he approached Rei.

"W-what are you doing here!" she gasped, backing away a few steps before Takashi grabbed her arm, preventing her from continuing. "W-what the hell, Takashi?"

"We need to leave" he said simply, holding her firmly and looking straight in her eyes with a serious look, giving most people the wrong idea, the murmurs of 'love confessions' floating around the room, also ignored by Takashi.

"Wait, wait...what's going on, Komuro-senpai?" a student suddently asked, standing from his seat. "This really isn't the time for a confression..."

"It's nothing like that, Himoura-san!" Takashi bit back, suddenly realizing something; this guy, Kaede Himoura, would be a big help if he brought him along, remembering the incident he had just witnessed, and the fact that he and Rei were suppose to be dating, which would help him get Rei out of there, so he lowed his voice to a whisper. "Listen...we need to get out of here; there...there was a murder at the gate...some criminals or something got into the school..."

"A-are you serious!" Kaede gasped out, not able to keep his voice down at the information. "You should tell somebody then-"

"No, I'm sure the school authorities already know...I just wanna get Rei outta here..." Takashi said, earning a nod from Kaede.

"What are you two talking about! Don't keep your explanations from me!" Rei growled, yanking her arm from Takashi's grip. "Tell me what's going on!"

"I-it doesn't matter right now, Rei...we need to get out of here though...come on, we'll tell you on the way" Kaede said, placing his hand on Rei's shoulder, calming her down a bit, even if just the slightest, preventing any intervention from Takashi.

Reluctantly, Rei nodded, giving Takashi a frown before she and Kaede followed him out of the class, the teacher sighing, not even bothering to call anyone and simply continued with his lesson...

The trio had been walking quickly through the halls, Takashi explaining the situation again without telling them any...unnessiary details, as he thought they were at the time, sence he didn't know what was going on himself.

"Well, if what you say is true..." Kaede said, looking around and spotting the janitor's locker, walking towards it and opened one of them, picking out a baseball bat from inside inside and handed it too Takashi. "We'll need weapons, just in case we run into the killer, right?"

Takashi nodded and watched as he twisted off the handle of a broom and handed it to Rei, the end jagged because of how he twisted it off.

"What about you?" Rei asked, taking the broom handle with nervous hands, knowing something just wasn't right, especially how Takashi was acting, and it was more than just a murder getting into the school; she didn't quite notice Kaede picking the lock of the other locker.

"What are you-?" Takashi started as he watched Kaede get the lock open and opened the locker.

"Don't worry, I'll use this~" Kaede said, obviously pleased with himself as he pulled a katana in a silk sheet used to carry swords from the locker, slipping the sword from the sheet; it wasn't anything special, a contest sword with a squared guard and a slightly longer than average hilt.

"W-what the hell? Why's that here?" Takashi asked, Rei thinking the same thing.

"The kendo teacher keeps it here, for special matches we have from time to time" Kaede said, leaving the sheets in the locker and closed it, sliding the katana into his belt. "I don't think he'll mind me using it, right?"

"How did you know it was there?" Takashi asked as he motioned him and Rei to start walking again.

"Don't worry about the little details...more importantly, were are we heading?" Kaede replied with a wave of his hand as they walked at a quickened pace.

"Well..." Takashi said, thinking; he hadn't even thought of that to begin with. "I'm...not sure were we should go..."

"We should call the police first" Rei suddenly interjected, having enough of being more or less ignored by the two males. "Don't you think that would a better thing to do than arming ourselves...?"

"Good point, I guess. Here, try it" Takashi said, eyeing the sword at Kaede's side, still wondering how Kaede knew of such a thing being in the school and wondering if following Kaede's advice on arming themselves; Keade noticed Takashi's glances and shrugged sheepishly. "She's right, you know..."

"Spur of the moment thing...and you can't tell me you weren't thinking the same thing, arming ourselves before we run into the murders or whatever..." Kaede replied with a frown, like Rei feeling that there was a little more to the situation than some criminals breaking into the school; wouldn't tere have been an announcment or something by now?

The two had looked over at Rei, noticing she had been quite for so long to be calling the police.

_"This is a recording. We at the emergency 110 line are held up in an emergency at the moment. If after calling again and we still can't receive your call, then hang u and try again later" _was barely able to be heard by Takashi and Kaede.

"Just what is...going on...?" Kaede asked, his question not directed to anyone specifically as he looked at Rei's wide eyed face, and Takashi's contracted face.

"Damnit...we-" Takashi started, just to be cut off by an announcement over the intercom.

_"Attention all students and teachers! There has been a violent conflict at the school gates. However, the police are on their way, so students, please stay with your teachers and follow their instructions, and please, remain calm. I repeat, there has been..."_

"This just keeps getting better and better..." Kaede muttered, the confused murmurings through the classes being heard in the halls. "We'd...better get going..."

Kaede spoke just in time, the panic starting to set in on the students, Takashi, Rei and Kaede continuing down the halls; as they made their way to the next building, the announcement turned from bad to worse, something happening to the announcer.

_I repeat, there has been a violent struggle-AAAGGGGGHHHHH!" _The announcement was suddenly cut off by a blood curling scream, stopping Rei, Takashi, and Kaede in their tracks, and making every student and teacher in the school stare at the intercom, stunned silent. "_I-it hurts! Stop! N-no! Some one help me!"_

"Was...that for real just now...?" Rei asked, staring up at the intercom as the transmission was cut off.

"I-it seems so..." Kaede said, looking to Takashi for some sort of explanation, but none came, which was somewhat expected.

"We need to get moving; let's go to the roof for now...see if we can see anything from there..." Takashi said as he began running towards the stairs, screams and other sounds of panic sounding from the classrooms, soon spilling into the halls as they neared the stairs.

They were suddently stopped, however, as a teacher limped into veir, his head bowed.

"That's...Wakisaka-sensei, the current events teacher...?" Rei said as they stopped. "Is he gonna try stopping us...?"

The teacher then stopped and raised his head with some effort, and seemed to look straight at them, an inhuman grown coming from his bloodied mouth.

"S-shit! Run!" Takashi yelled, Rei gasping and running first, followed by Kaede, who's hand was on his sword, not knowing enough to draw it yet, and Takashi, the bat ready in his hands, ready to use it but also not quite ready to attack the teacher.

That changed when he whipped around towards Rei and reached for her, Kaede and Takashi not quite close enough to protect her.

"Hey! Wakisaka! over here!" Takashi cried, but to no avail, the teacher reaching for her. "Rei!"

With Takashi's warning, Rei spun around and preared her makeshift spear, her eyes narrow and void of any hesitation.

"Don't underestimate a member of the sou-jitsu club!" Rei yelled as she thrust the jagged end of the broom handle through the teacher's chest, peircing his heart with ease, lifting him off his feet for a second even.

However, that didn't spot the teacher one bit; as soon as he got his footing, he tried reaching for Rei, her spear holding him just far enough that his hands couldn't reach her. Being too concentrated on keeping him at bay, Rei couldn't do much else, and the spear was sinking further into the teacher's body, so, Kaede stepped up, putting Wakisaka in a tight head lock, still not prepared to use the sword on anybody.

"Pull it out, Rei!" Kaede said, holding the teacher still as Rei stood, pulling her spear back.

"N-no! Kaede, get away from him!" Takashi yelled, Kaede looking back to reassure him he could hold him when the teacher began forcing his head around, Kaede quickly turning and grabbing his head, his strength being to great for a human. "H-he's not normal! GET AWAY!"

"D-damnit!" Kaede yelled, there being a snap of the teacher's neck as he turned far enough and snapped at Kaede's arm; Rei closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to look, only to open them to the sound of a fist coming in contact with flesh.

Kaede had let go of Wakisaka just in time, his jaws only catching his gakuran and ripping the sleeve as he pulled back; needing no other incentive, Rei tried again with her spear, stabbing him through the side as Kaede stumbled back, even surprised himself that he dodged the bite. However, the attack didn't do much like before, and he tried twisting around towards Rei again, the spear preventing him from turning around completly.

Takashi took this chance, and swung the bat, full force, down on Wakisaka's head, crushing his skull; the body fell straight to the floor with a dull thud, pulling Rei's spear from her hands as he fell.

"Looks like...crushing the head's the only way..." Takashi said, panting slightly with the bat in his hands, looking over as Kaede stood up. "You okay?"

"Y-yeah, just a little shaken up..." Kaede said, looking at the torn sleeve of his gakuran, a screaming drawing his attention to a side hall, were what seemed to be a group of students were limping along towards them, the source of the screaming coming from a few on their knees, someone in the middle of them kicking as the 'students' leaned over him. "W-we should go..."

Takashi agreed and with that, the were heading for the roof again, through Rei did want to help out but could only guess the fate of that student, and also knew, as did Takashi and Kaede, that he was probably too far gone to save now. A few minutes later, the three burst out onto the roof, only to find it already occupied by the undead, some finishing their snacks of the living students.

"D-damn!" Takashi growled, only to hear the sound of Kaede drawing the sword at his side.

"The observatory deck!" Kaeded said, pointing towards the mentioned area with his free hand. "We can go there, board ourselves up, and figure out something to do next, maybe even to wait for a rescue?"

Kaede explained, Takashi nodding at the plan as his hands tightend on the bat. There was no words needed, the trio running full speed towards the raised observatory room and taking out any one the undead that got in their way, bushing and slicing off heads as they went; luckily, with the three of them, it didn't take long for them to get to the observatory room and rushed up the stairs.

However, one of them had followed, and was half way up the stairs when Rei noticed him, quickly turning and trusting her spear into his stomach.

"Rei! Come one!" Takashi called as she stoped to look back.

"I've got this!" Rei yelled back, looking back at Takashi; the undead teacher grabbed her spear were it had pierced him, and yanked it from Rei's hands out of pure chance, swinging it and knocking Rei against the wall.

The teacher withdrew the broom handle from his stomach and dropped it, before rushing at Rei; Takashi started for her, but Kaede was already a few steps ahead, jumping from their spot at the top of the stairs with his katana raised over his head, and swung it as he landed, easily severing the head of the attacking teacher.

"Are you okay?" he asked Rei as he helped her up, grabbing her spear for her and handing it to her.

"Y-yeah...come one" Rei said as they climbed back up the stairs; he and Takashi quickly working on barricading the stairwell from any of the undead before they got to them.

Once done, Takashi and Kaede slumped onto the ground, Rei coming back from the observatory with a few bottles of water. Kaede stood, flicking the blood from his katana and sheathing it before taking the water and taking Rei; Takashi also accepted the water with a short nod of thanks.

"There's some food in there, but not much...hopefully enough to hold us over until we're rescued, right...?" Rei said ith a light smile, handing the bottles to Kaede and Takashi. "...so, what exactly are they...? It's like a horror movie or something...l-like zombies..."

"It sure seems that way..." Kaede replied, looking down at the 'students' limping towards their location with a frown. "Their certainly not human anymore..."

"This is fucking ridiculous!" Takashi suddenly snapped, jumping up. "This is real life! How is this shit happening!"

"I don't know! None of us do!" Kaede shot back, likewise standing up to face Takashi. "We don't need to be freaking out either way! It may not be the best example, but it's the only thing we've got to go on, unless you have something better?"

Takashi hated to do it, but he shook his head, Kaede's words making sense even if he didn't want to admit it.

"First thing's first..." Kaede continued, his tone softening slightly. "We can't got calling them humans...there's no way they are..not anymore...that's it. We'll refer to these...things as '_them' _from now on; sound good?"

Rei nodded first, shortly followed by Takashi.

"There's no way these things are human, so what caused the change then?" Takashi asked, only receiving a shrug.

"Dunno, but whatever is causing it is transferred from a bite from someone already infected, as we've learned form movies, and seen with our own eyes" Kaede said, looking back over _them, _seeing that the few corpses that were being munched on had gotten up, joining _their _ranks. "So any bite from _them _is extreamly dangerous, right? On top of that, the only way to kill them is by bashing their heads..."

The last part of Kaede's review on the undead was drowned out by the sound of helicopters passing over by, the three looking up as four black hawks flew over head; Rei instantly stood and waved her hands at them, trying to flag them down. Despite looking right at her, they continued on without hesitation.

"It's pointless Rei..." Kaede said as he watched them continue on.

"W-why...? They saw us, yet..." Rei sobbed, near tears.

"That's why" Kaede said, pointing out to the city, were smoke was rising. "It looks like the city is in just the same condition; they probably means they had a special mission or something. That's why all the police lines are tied up, and there may not be a rescue for awhile, so..."

"We're on our own..." Takashi finished, getting the full picture of the situation now, the banging on the barricade not helping any and slammed his bat into the railing in fustration. "Damn...and now were stuck up here..."

"No, not exactly..." Kaede said, standing up and taking a look around the observation deck, walking around the building and talking over his shoulder. "We shouldn't try fighting them all, but...maybe there's something we can use to clear them all out of the way."

"There...was a fire hose on the other side of the observatory" Rei said, wanting to help out with their situation, sense they were all stuck there weather she liked it or not. "I don't know if it'll help or not..."

"No, that's perfect Miyomoto-san" Kaede said, finding the fire hose as she mentioned in and unwinding it, carrying it over to Takashi. "Here, you use it. Rei, turn it on when we're ready; I'll open up the barricade. Once most of _them _are cleared out, we'll make a run for the entrance to the school, okay?"

As Rei and Takashi nodded, Kaede took off his torn gakuran and tossed it aside, having no use for it now, leaving him in a white dress shirt before walking over to the barricade; he looked back at Takashi to see him nod, holding the hose tightly in a readied stance. Kaede quickly pulled out a few key items in the barricade, _they _on the other side quickly doing the rest.

"Rei!" Takashi yelled as _they _started pushing the barricades in, Kaede, who had backed away, drew his sword in one swift motion, just as Rei turned the water on full blast.

Takashi stumbled back a few feet from the initial backlash of the water shooting from the hose, but, as soon as he was able to get the upper hand over the force, he was able to blow _them _away, knocking _them_ down the stairs and even causing quite a few to bash _their _heads on the ground; most of _them _on the roof had gathered, so most of them were taken care of with just that.

Takashi quickly dropped the hose as Rei shut the water off, grabbing his bat as Rei joined them and they rushed down the stairs with Kaede in the lead, slashing across one of _their _faces who was lucky to survive falling from the stairs, allowing Takashi to take the lead. He knocked a few of _them _that hadn't been outside the barricade out of their way as they approached the door to the stairs.

Once there, Rei and Takashi entered and started down the stairs, Kaede stopping at the door to make sure none of _them _on the roof followed behind them, closing the door after him as he went to join the other two. They each exchanged a sigh, the halls relatively empty, but the floors and a few walls were stained with blood, but no corpses.

"What...happened here...?" Rei asked, looking around stunned.

"Anyone bitten becomes one of _them_, huh...?" Takashi muttered softly as the grip on his bat tightened, suddenly blinking in surprise as a sound echoed through the halls. "A...gunshot...?"

"No, not quite...we should still check it out though, right?" Kaede corrected Takashi as he flicked his wrist, cleaning the blade of blood again before sheathing it. "A gunshot would be much louder; in any case, we should still check it out, no?"

Takashi nodded along with Rei, and the three began heading to towards the source of the sound the seemed to have come from the floor below, and had echoed through the stairs to their floor. As they rounded the landing between floors, a scream echoed up, and Takashi recognised the voice immediately.

"That's Takagi-san's voice!" Takashi yelled as he rushed down the remaning stairs, followed shortly by Rei and Kaede.

Takashi skid to a halt, stunned for a second over the sight before them; his pink haired childhood friend pushing a drill through the head of one of _their _heads, blood splattering over her body.

"We've got a problem, Takashi..." Kaede'svoice came from over his shoulder, followed by the sound of his sword scrapping from it's sheath; Takashi turned to see he and Rei already standing at the ready, several of _them _limping towards them.

Takashi also noticed that the school nurse, Marikawa Shizuka, and a senior he recognised as Busujima Saeko, standing at the opposite hall near by as he gave orders to Rei and Kaede, he himself not knowing why he did so at the time.

"Rei! Take the ones on the right! I'll take the ones on the left and Himoura, you got the center!" Takashi yelled, the two moving to follow the orders without hesitation; Rei was able to kill one with a single strike and disable another momentarily while Kaede dispatched two in the center, finishing off the one Rei was holding at the end of her spear.

Takashi himself quickly bashed in the head of one and went to attack another to find the senior, Saeko taking two out, leaving only one in the vicinity, which Takashi quickly took care of. As _it's _body hit the floor, Shizuka and Rei quickly rushed to Takagi to make sure she was alright while Saeko, Kaede and Kouta we left standing around, Kaede and Takashi quickly taking a look around to make sure there weren't any of _them _near by before they turned back to Saeko and Kouta.

"You all know Shizuka-sensei, the school nurse. I'm Busujima Saeko, senior class A" Saeko introduced herself, Shizuka needing no introduction, as Kaede and Takashi turned their attention back to the other students.

"Komuro Takashi, sophmore of class B" Takashi replied, scratching the back of his head with his back in his other hand.

"Himoura Kaede, also a sophomore and from class B...I think we've met during kendo practice from time to time" Kaede said as he cleaned his sword from his blade with a torn peice of clothing from on of the corpses before sheathing it, Saeko eyeing it curiously. "Uh, Watenabi-sensei keeps this at the school for certain contest...I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that knew that, and were it was..."

"I see...and you are?" Saeko replied with a light smile as she turned her attention to Kouta, who jumped and stuttered a responce.

"H-Hirano Kouta, s-sophomore of class B-B as well.." Kouta replied nervously, intimidated by the fact she was a senior, regardless of what had been going on and what he had to face before meeting with every one.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all..." Saeko said as she started turning to Rei and the others.

"Ah, I'm Miyamoto Rei, same year and class; I'm also in the sou-jitsuclub. You won the national tournament last year, right?" Rei said, turning to Saeko as she spoke; however, this seemed to be a snapping point for Saya...

"What's with you guys, acting so friendly?" the blood splattered genius said in a hash tone that made Kouta wince.

"What are you talking about, Takagi-san...?" Takashi spoke, taking a few steps towards Saya, unsure if he should get angry or try and comfort Saya himself.

"Stop being an idiot! I'm a genius!" Saya suddenly shouted, whipping around on Takashi. "If we start acting like this, then we'll lose the next time and get-!"

"Alright, that's enough..." Saeko's voice suddenly came from behind Saya, her hand coming to rest of Saya's shoulder and turned her around, Saya getting a good lock in the mirror behind the trophy display of how bloody she had become after drilling through the undead's skull earlier, her eyes widening.

"A-ahh...my clothes...are so dirty...I-I should clean up before I go s-see my mom..." Saya said weekly before collapsing, Saeko following her down and holding the sobbing girl.

A short while later, the group found themselves inside the near by faculty room, Takashi, Kouta and Kaede barricading the door against _them,_and with one door, it was made easy with the three of them. Inside the room, Shizuka was sitting at a desk with her head down, Saeko sitting next to her, seemingly in deep thought, and Rei was leaning against the wall before suddenly jumping up.

"Takashi, you have your cell phone on you, right?" She suddently asked, looking at him hopefully.

"Uh, yeah, why? Didn't we already agree calling the police was pointless?" Takashi asked as he stepped back, looking at her as Kaede and Kouta finished up with the barricade.

"Yeah, but I just remembered...my dad gave me a number to call if I ever needed him for an emergency, so I'll try that now..." Rei replied, holding her hand out to Takashi. "Just give me your phone."

With a sigh, Takashi complied, handing her his cell phone and watched her open it up, her thumbs pushing in the numbers as he vaguely heard Kaede and Kouta talking about the barricade behind them.

"Ah! He picked up..." Rei said, drawing Takashi's attention to her again, her face lightening up. "Hello? Dad?"

"Hello...this number, is it Takashi...gave you this number, right? Is Rei alright?" Rei's dad could be heard over the phone, but the reception kept cutting out what he was saying, and the static made it hard to hear.

"Dad! It's me, Rei! Dad!" Rei's face quickly changed to worried; it sounded like her dad couldn't hear her on the other side.

"..it! Is you family...from, and to the city..." suddenly, the static cut everything else off, and soon the call was disconnected all together.

"Dad! Dad...!" Rei tried calling out, but the connection was cut, and, with tears in her eyes, Rei lowed the phone, and closed it.

"At least you know he's alive" Takashi said in a soft tone, not knowing what else to say at a time like this, having heard most of what Rei could hear.

Without hesitation, Rei hugged Takashi tightly and started sobbing in his chest, Takashi holding him. He couldn't help but to look curiously over his shoulder at her suposedly new boyfriend; Kaede was looking back at him with a slight frown, but he simply shrugged, Takashi feeling no hate or any expected feeling coming from his gaze, and looked away.

Takashi thought this strange and tried thinking o about what Rei and Kaede's relationship really was, his thoughts only broken by Rei's sobs as the room fell silent. With the atmosphere so heavy, Kouta decided to check on Saya to escape.

"Takagi-san, are you okay...?" Kouta asked as he rounded the corner to the sinks were Saya was washing off, seeing her fixing her glasses and her face still slightly wet after washing it off, a towel in her hand already to dry off better. "E-eh? G-glasses...?"

"So what! My contact lenses were in too long!" she yelled as she dried her face the rest of the way and threw her the towel in his face as she walked past. "Plus they keep falling out, alright!"

Back with the rest of the group, Rei had calmed down a bit, and they were all discussing what was on their minds.

"So, what's our next move? It's already obvious we should stick together, right?" Saeko said from her seat as Rei and Takashi took a chair, Kaede hopping up onto a desk sense there weren't anymore left, Shizuka now handing out bottles of water to every one and retook her seat, smiling lightly that some one hadn't taken it while she was away.

"That's true" Kaede replied with a nod. "It's also obvious we should get outta the school...but were too after that?"

This brought another silence were Takashi thought to himself before finally speaking.

"We'll take it one step at a time; Shizuka-sensei, were are you're car keys?" Takashi said, finally falling on a decision; it may not be the best, but it was something.

"They're in my purse.." Shizuka replied and began rummaging through her bag until Saeko spoke, stopping her dead.

"Is your car big enough to hold us all, Shizuka-sensei?" she said, looking around the room; there were seven total.

"Ugh...n-no..." Shizuka replied as she pictured her small car that would barely hold four of them squished.

"How about the micro buses? For field trips?" Kouta asked suddenly, joining the conversation too as he and Saya joined them, walking over to the windows with Rei.

"They're still there...were are the keys?" Rei asked, looking around as Shizuka pointed them out, a key rack on the wall near the door.

"One of those would sure hold us all, but were would we be going in one?" Saya asked, not having heard that part of the conversation yet. "I wanna make sure my parents are okay..."

Saya's comment got several nods of agreement; one from Rei, one from Takashi, and one from Kaede.

"We all live near by, so we'll check our homes first? Then we'll find some place safe to stay, or something like that..." Takashi again made another desision for the group without even realizing, and every one agreed on it as well. "If we can't find them at our houses, then we'll look-"

"W-what is th-this...?" Rei's voice suddenly came from behind the group, making them turn to see her and Kaede looking up at the t.v, Kaede turning with a grave look on his face.

"You guys...may wanna see this..." he muttered as he turned the t.v up so everyone could hear.

_"...it. Due to the large numbers of riots throughout the country, the government has been forced to rethink it's emergency policy. However, when questioned on the ability of the Self-Defence Force to maintain a public order, representatives would not..."_

"A news report..?" Takashi gasped, his and everyone else's eyes glued on the t.v now.

"..._comment. The local death toll has already surpassed 1,000.. The prefectural governor is going to make a speech directed to those evacuated. He..." _The reporter suddently stopped, pressing her hand to her ear pice as new information came in. "_Just in! The police have made an announcement!" They still don't know what to make of the current situation..."_

This time, the reporter was cut off from a body in a body bag behind them raising; screams and even a gunshot sounding before the broadcast was cut off, and the picture changed to that of two reporters in a studio.

"_...we're having some technical difficulties. From now on, we will be broadcasting from the studio."_

"T-that's it! Their not showing any more?" Takashi yelled angrily; they made it sound like some sort of relatively normal disaster was happening, nothing about the dead walking and attacking.

"They don't want to cause a panic." Saya said, simply, as she pushed her glasses up.

"Even after what was just shown!" Rei interjected

"Because of what was just show." Saya replied, taking a second before explaining further. "Fear causes chaos, and chaos destroys order; without order, who knows how many lives will be lost?"

"Still...this just shows how the much help the government and such are gonna be in a situation like this..." Kaede said with a scowl, never being one to like the government or authority figures. "They're gonna be more worried about retaining order...something that probably won't happen, especially after this..."

The group fell silent as the report continued, the words exchanged heavy in their minds.

"_...is what it has become. The Central Security office requests that all citizens remain indoors. If at all possible, please stay in your homes. Also, please close any windows or other potential entrance ways. The government is advising people to keep others out of their homes. This is due to the evacuation shelters being..."_

With no other useful information being mentioned, Saya snatched the remote from Kaede's hand, who gave it up without a fight, and changed the channel to another news broadcast; and American one being translated into Japanese that seemed a lot more helpful.

"_The United States is working to get these bizarre occurrences under control. The President and his cabinet have fled the White House." _the report was indeed more helpful than the last, not because of the information, but it showed that the Outbreak of dead was more than likely world wide, shots of the undead approaching the White House as a helicopter took off, as well as a shot of a city street, a military blockade faced with hordes of undead.. "_Reports say they are flying westward. Furthermore, the United States are preparing their nuclear weapons. Critics say..."_

_"_That's all we fucking need!" Kaede suddenly shouted, saying what was on all of their minds. "Threat of nuclear war over this! The governmets' have a real good hold over this one...retaining order my ass!"

"_...that if actions are taken, circumstances would be dire_(followed by a "Damn right they would be!" from Kaede). _At the preasent time, we are still waiting for correspondence from Moscow. The entire city of Peking is in flames. In comparison, London is having relatively few troubles maintaining public order. But the prevalence of looting in Paris and Rome is staggering..."_

This is were Takashi took the remote and turned the t.v off completely, tossing the remote onto the desk.

"That's...enough of that..." he said with a sigh.

"I...don't believe this is happening..." Rei suddenly said, on the verge of tears again. "I-I can't believe this is happening! There's gotta be a place were everything's fine, right? Everything was just fine this morning-!"

"Well, you're wrong!" Saya's voice suddenly cut in, like a slap across the face for Rei, who was clinging onto the nearest person, which happened to be Kaede.

'That seems right...' Takashi dully noted, remembering earlier when she had clung to him instead of Kaede. 'The rumors said she was dating him after Hishashi...'

"Don't talk like that, Takagi!" Takashi said firmly, pushing his thoughts of Rei, Kaede and Hishashi aside.

"I can't help it; it's the truth. We've got a pandemic on our hands." Saya said, shrugging her shoulders as Kaede comforted Rei, calming her down. "It's an infection spreading like wildfire; the rest of the world has the same disease as we have here."

"Like the Spanish Flu in 1918?" Takashi asked, recalling one of the most recent history classes he remembered.

"Exactly" Saya said, a bit pleased with Takashi's example. "In that case, 600 million were infected, and 50 million died from it; they can't underestimate pandemics like that, or this."

"Sounds like the Black Plague from the fourteenth century..." Kaede said as Rei left his arms, wiping her tears away; he seemed to have calmed down as well from the news report, but he obviously still wasn't happy. "It nearly wiped out Europe's population, or something like that..."

"What did they do to stop it? Both pandemics...?" Takashi asked, wondering if they could get anything useful out of past events.

"Nothing that worked" Kaede replied with a frown.

"True; they tried many thing, but it just eventually stopped. People just grew an immunity to it" Saya continued for Kaede, seeing that he didn't seem like he was going to continue. "But...people who die this time around...come back and infect others..."

"...so you're saying there's no way of stopping it from spreading?" Saeko asked gravely.

"When it gets really hot, _their_ muscles would rot and fall off _their_ bones, and _they_won't be able to move!" Shizuka suddenly said, seeming like just a random, air headed remark, but it made some sense...even if it was only by a little bit.

"And how would that happen?" Saeko asked, a bit thrown off, like the rest of them, over the sudden statement.

"During the summer, it would take about twenty days for _them_to rot in the sun...but it's the start of winter now..." Shizuka said, realizing just how useless the comment was to their current situation and time frame.

"We're not even sure _they'll_start rotting" Saya interjected with a frown. "We know so little about _them_, so there is a lot of room for surprises...and _they're _already dead, so a cure is out of the question...how long we'll have to deal with them is unknown at this time..."

The room fell into silence once more, each person in their own thoughts, Kaede shifting onto a table again, remembering Takashi's words, and figured it was a good time to remind everyone else of them again.

"After we check on our families, we'll decide on a safe place to escape to and stay until we figure something else out, right?" Kaede said, repeating Takashi's words in his own. "We'll worry about the details later...sounds like a good enough plan for me."

There were nods all around, Takashi looking thankfully almost at Kaede for reminding the group of the goals they had already decided on.

"Yes...however, we won't survive if we act selfishly; we're a team" Saeko spoke to further the group's bonds. "If we wanna live, we must act as one.."

There was a round of nods again, and Kaede hopped of the desk.

"Alright then! So, how are we gonna get outta the school building then?" Kaede asked, stretching his arms out and sliding his katana, which had been leaned against a desk at some point, as well as his sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

"The quickest way would be out the front entrance and straight to the parking lots from there..." Takashi said as the rest of them got ready, Kouta and Kaede already taking down the barricades as Shizuka grabbed a set of keys for a bus; leaning his bat against the wall, Takashi helped get it down faster.

Before opening the door, Kouta grabbed the modified nail gun, Kaede opening the door for him; with two well placed shots, two bodies fell and the halls was clear for the group to exit.

"Don't fight them unless necessary; pushing _them_over if just as effective. We don't need to go straining ourselves now that we're leaving the school" Saeko said, sharing her previous knowledge about the undead leaned when they were all separate.

"_They're_sencitive to sound only too! But _they're _strong enough to rip a door of it's hinges, so be careful!" Saya added in a loud whisper as the group started advancing towards the stairs, Rei or Takashi pushing aside any of _them _in their path with Saeko and Kaede next, then Kouta and Shiazuka with Saya at the very back.

As the neared the stairs, the sounds of a struggle were heard, and Takashi could barely see a small group of students fighting off a few undead; without hesitation, he and Rei rushed to their aid, Saeko and Kaede taking their places until the rest of the group caught up; when they did, Saeko and Kaede quickly joined in, dispatching _them _quickly, especially Kaede with his katana. Even if it was just a contest sword and was dulled slightly, Kaede knew how to use it and did it with enough strength to easily decapitate any of _them. _

"T-thank you for saving us!" one of the girls said to be quickly hushed by Saeko.

"Don't speak too loudly" Saeko said, keeping her voice just above a whisper. "Were any of you bitten?"

"N-no..." one said, followed by shakes of heads all around.

"They look fine, really..." Rei replied before turning to them. "We're gonna get out of the school...want to come along?"

"Y-yeah!" one of the male students said with a nod.

With the other group of students with them, they went down the rest of the stairs, Takashi motioning for them to stay just around the corner of the last flight, Saya, Kaede, Saeko and Rei stepping down with him, looking into the entrance of the school.

There were several of _them _limping around, completely oblivious to the group of living students just a few feet from them.

"This doesn't seem like too good of an idea..." Kaede muttered, speaking Takashi's mind as they looked down at _them_.

"I really don't wanna do this..." Takashi muttered, looking back at Saya. "You sure you're right about this?"

"Of course!" Saya said in a loud whisper before quieting down slightly. "They only react to sound, all other senses are dead, so it'll be like you're invisable!"

"Then show us proof of your theory, Takagi!" Takashi hissed back, only to for Saya to shake her head violently.

"I don't wanna do it either!" Saya bit back. "And we can't all go; we won't be able to move quietly with a big group like this..."

"Inside the school...during the first attack, I couldn't find any consistency in _their _movements." Saeko said in a whisper as they moved down behind a row of lockers closest to the stairs when the path was clear. "We won't be able to just run out the entrance all together..."

'Who...' Takashi thought, his eyes falling on everyone of the group he knew he could trust; his eyes rested on Saeko and Kaede for a second, but he looked away. 'There's only one...'

"Alright, I'll go" Takashi spoke with a frown, almost instantly getting objections from Rei; he looked at her and gave her a soft smile. "You're only making things harder for me..."

And with that, Takashi walked out from behind the lockers, Saeko holding Rei back to prevent her from stopping him and making unnecessary noise. As Takshi walked out into the open, suddenly freezing as one of _them _seemed to look right at him, but _it _limped on, Takashi letting out a light sigh.

'I'm glad Saya's right this time...' he thought to himself as he walked further out, just to make sure; none of _them_even made a move to acknowlage him being there. 'In that case...'

Takshi bent down and picked up a discarded shoe and tossed it against a locker as far away as her could throw it, making as much noise as a shoe against a locker could. Almost instantly, _they _started limping towards the noise, and Takashi rushed over to the door, opening it. As soon as the path was clear, the group started running over, one by one; the plan was going perfectly, except for the last student, the pole he had been using for a weapon hitting the wall, the sound echoing through the halls, alerting _them _in the school, and outside.

"Run!" Takashi yelled, the group not needed to be told more than once as they began spiriting to the buses.

"Why'd you yell!" Saya yelled at Takashi as they ran, side by side, Saeko and Kaede in the lean, knocking down any of _them _in their path. "We could have probably been able to slip past them even after that!"

"A noise like that echoes far; we would have _them _from all over the school if we didn't start running" Takashi shot back, swinging his bat into the saide of one of _their _heads, almost soothed by being able to hit something so violently at the moment. "Just shut up and run!"

As they neared the bus, there was a scream that made Takashi turn; one of the student's had been grabbed by one of _them _and was pulled down, and bitten, several others coming to join as _they _devoured the student. Every one had looked back to see what happened, some too busy with other things to worry too much about it; he was bitten and his fate was sealed. Despite knowing this, Saeko and Kaede hated to admit it, but turning, having more important things to do for the better of the whole group, the two fighting off many of the undead.

At the rear, one of the girls yelled and began running towards the male, but Saya grabbed her, stopping her for a second.

"Don't bother! There's no saving someone who's been bitten!" Saya hissed at her; none the less, the girl yanked her arm free from Saya's hold and ran back to him.

"Why bother living anymore! I don't have anyone to trust anymore!" the girl yelled over her shoulder as the ran towards the male, only to be pulled to the ground and bitten, _them _swarming over from the screaming the two were making.

"I-I can see were she comes from..wanting to die next to the one she loves..." Rei commented, being the closest on and has watched the whole thing.

"Maybe if the rest of the world is this bad...maybe it'd be better to die..." Shzikua said a few feet ahead of them.

"You call yourself a nurse!" Saya yelled at her angrily.

"Look out!" Kouta cut it, firing a few nails at several of _them _that approached the three girls, cutting Saya's chew-out if Shizuka. "Please stay calm, Takagi-san..."

"You stupid tub of lard! What makes you think you can interrupt me!" Saya shot back angrily, Kouta's lip wavering at the verbal abuse, but regathered his composure quickly.

"W-when you're done talking, do you think you could tell me whether you'd consider going out with me?" Kouta suddenly asked, throwing Saya of blanace.

"You two must be close...I'm envious." Saeko commented over their shoulder, the area temporarily cleared of _them._

"Shizuka-sensei! The key!" Kaede yelled from near the bus, slicing a head off.

"R-right!" Shizuka stammered, quickly running to the bus with everyone else, unlocking the door and going inside, followed by the student's who weren't fighting the undead off.

"I'll shoot from the window" Kouta said as he rushed inside; a second later, one of the buses windows open and Kouta popped out, providing cover for the students still outside.

"I"ll stay out here for support; senpai, Kaede! Get inside!" Takashi yelled, knocking away one of _them _that had gotten too close.

Inside, Shizuka was having some problems with the car, never having to need to drive a bus; she was looking around the dash board, trying to familarize herself with everything while trying to figure out how to drive it as well. As this went on, Takashi backed up into the bus after Saeko and Kaede, Rei helping him pull the door closed when they heard a voice.

"Please wait a moment!" some one yelled, Takashi peering out; the voice belonged to what seemed like a teacher, leading a small group of students, the teacher waving at them to signal they were coming.

"That's..." Takashi started, looking at the teacher, but couldn't remember his name.

"Shidou from class 3-A" Saeko replied, looking from the front window at the approaching group, neither of them noticing Rei looking at him with pure hate in her eyes; Kaede seemed to be the only one to notice, and was instantly weary of the teacher, it taking a lot to get a response like that from Rei.

"We're ready to go!" Shizuka suddenly interrupted from the driver's seat, Takashi shaking his head.

"Hold on for just a few minutes until they get here!" Takashi replied, heading down the steps. "I'm gonna make sure their path's clear!"

"B-but _they're _coming from the front too! If we wait too much longer, we won't be able to leave!" Shizuka interjected; none the less, Takashi was rushing down the stairs, Kaede and Saeko following.

"We can just run them over, Shizuka-sensei!" Kaede yelled, the last one down the steps, however Rei grabbed him.

"W-we don't need to save him!" Rei yelled; this seriously made Kaede reconsider saving the teacher.

"What are you saying Rei!" Takashi yelled from outside, bashing the head in of one of the undead, Kaede pulling himself from Rei's grasp after hesitation to help Takashi and Saeko.

"We shouldn't save him! That kind of person is better off dead!" Rei yelled from the door way, her protests falling on deaf ears now.

"Everyone, hurry! They'll help us!" Shidou yelled, motioning his students to the bus; one of them that was catching up suddenly tripped and skid to a stop near his feet.

"S-sensei! I twisted my ankle!" the student yelled, grabbing onto Shidou's pant leg.

"Oh dear...now that's unfortunate, isn't it..?" Shidou said in a deadly tone, looking down at the student with cold eyes before kicking his face with the bottom of his foot, breaking his glasses and nose. "Get your hands off me! The weak have to right to live!"

And with that, Shidou started for the bus again, the withering and screaming student working as an excellent dementstration for everyone, and now one saw the act. However, Kaede had seen the outcome, and was believing Rei more and more, even if all he saw was Shidou calmly walking away as _they _surrounded his student and dug in.

"Alright, Shizuka-sensei!" Takashi yelled as they all were loaded on the bus, Shidou being the last.

"I'm going!" Shizuka replied, starting the bus and drove, the initial start making everyone lurch in their spots for a moment before they regained their composure.

"...you saved us. Is Busujima the one in charge?" was the first thing out of Shidou's mouth, the senior in question frowning instantly and Kaede scowling along with Rei, his hand never leaving his sword, that had been sheathed at some point.

"No, we don't have anyone like that. We relied on each other equally to escape" Saeko replied coldly as she and Shidou locked eyes, staring one another down for several minutes while the nurse was having a struggle of her own.

"_They're _not human anymore...not human..._they're _not human!" Shizuka yelled, breaking the match between Shidou and Saeko by drawing their attention as Shizuka ran down several of _them _in the way.

"That's unacceptable.." Shidou continued while everyones attention was on Shizuka, a small, sadistic grin playing his lips. "In order to survive, a leader if absolutely necessary...the reason is obvious. The leader must protect the order of the group..."

Takashi had turned his attention back to Shidou, frowning gravely as he listening to his words, suddenly feeling an arm around his own.

"You're going to regret this..." Rei said in a soft voice before looking at Takashi directly with firm eyes. "You're defiantly going to regret saving _him"_

'Of course, when she said that, I had no idea what she ment; I didn't know anything about Shidou. But I also...' Takashi thought to himself as the bus neared the school gates.

"I'm... going to break through the gate!" Shizuka warned, everyone preparing themselves just in time, the bus throwing the gates open as it crashed through and out onto the streets, smoke could be seen coming from the city.

'...didn't know what to expect in the outside world, so I was feeling even more uneasy about everything...'

**Chapter 1, end.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors note: In this chapter, I will not be switching over to the scene in the bus were the group parts with Shidou and his students, mostly because it plays out the same way, just quicker since Takashi's there and makes the decision to leave, making them even more determined to leave Shidou and his religious faction behind...oh, by the way, did you guys know that Kouta has the same name as the artist for Hellsing? And they even kind look alike; wonder if the Kouta from HOTD was based on the manga artist or something...**

**Chapter 2: Democracy under the DEAD**

the streets were empty, and so was a convince store along the side of the road, save for it's single employee, who was standing, oblivious to the world. Just outside the door, and undead old lady been limping towards the store, groaning inhumanly. Suddenly, a bus whizzed by, taking out the zombie, with the employee never even knowing.

"It's dangerous to dive like this! Be more careful already!" one of the male students(let's just call him Sasaki) yelled from the back of the bus, the original group obviously annoyed by his constant complaining, turning on the group quickly without hesitation. "Why the hell do we have to be with you guys! You've all decided on your own were your going! Wouldn't it have been better to find a place we could hide out at the dorms or the school!"

Sasaki continued yelling, Shizuka swerving around a few cars before having to come to a dead stop at a pile up of cars.

"H-he's right you know!" another male added in, Ito, as Shizuka pulled back and drove around the cars, speeding down the empty streets once more. "We're only putting ourselves in more danger by driving this way...we should stop somewhere...there was a convenience store just a little ways back...! Can't you drive any slower?"

The bus suddenly came to another stop, this time Shizuka unbuckling herself and whipping on Sasaki.

"That's enough! Lay off of me!" Shizuka yelled angerly at the teen. "I've never driven one of these before, so gave me a break, will you!"

After this, Sasaki fell silent, as did Ito, and Shizuka buckled herself back in, driving once more. They continued in relative peace until Sasaki happened to look at Takashi when his eyes were on him, and it started again.

"What the fuck're you looking at, huh!" he yelled at Takashi; at this, Kaede rose.

"I've had just about enough of your bitching, punk" he growled, Sasaki spinning on him.

"The fuck did you just say!" he yelled, not even waiting to swing a punch at Kaede.

With ease, Keade ducked under the thrown blow and delivered one of his own to Sasaki's chin, knocking him back. It wasn't a full force hit, so he was only stunned for a second before rushing at Kaede again, infuriated. However, Rei was the one who intervened this time, swinging the broken broom handel full force into his stomach. Bile was forced up from his stomach and Rei withdrew her spear, letting him fall to the floor, holding his stomach and wither, everyone a bit more than a little shocked by the sudden act of violence from Rei; form Kaede, it was expected a bit, but from Rei...

"...you're horrible..." Rei said in a disgusted tone, looking down at Sasaki squirming on the floor.

"R-Rei..." both Takashi and Keade muttered, her looking back at both of them and smiling, making even harder for the two to figure out who she did such an act for, even though it would seem like she did it for Kaede, but he had originally did it, more or less, to get Sasaki off Takashi's back.

Their thoughts were interrupted by a clapping coming from the far back of the bus, Shidou standing and clapping as he approached the three.

"What a sight!" Shidou exclaimed, approaching closer. "Komuro-kun, Himoura-kun, Miyamoto-kun...that was a wonderful display of teamwork. However, this only proves my previous point...we need a leader to prevent any future fights from breaking out..."

As he spoke, Shidou leaned against Saya's seat, who pushed her glasses up and finished for him.

"And lemme guess; there's only one person fit to shoulder the burden, right?" Saya spit out sarcastically.

"I am a teacher after all, Takagi-san. And you are all students." Shidou put emphasis on both 'student' and 'teacher,' looking down at Saya. "I'm the only one qualified...so how about it? If you agree with lil' ol' me..."

Shidou quickly spun towards the other half of the bus, full of the students he himself had saved.

"Would you please clap your hands?" he finished, and almost instantly, they all started clapping, and Shidou took a deep bow, in this case obvious that he had more supporters than the rest of the group; Shidou, with his victory, turned to back to Takashi and the others. "...just as I said. The majority rules that I am to become our leader."

Before anyone could stop her, and without a word of warning, Rei went for the door, opening it and hopping out.

"If that's the case, I'm leaving!" she said loud enough for them to hear as she began walking away.

"Rei!" Takashi yelled, about to follow her, but Kaede was faster, jumping from the bus and running over to Rei.

"Rei...!" Kaede said as he caught up with her. "Listen, it's dangerous to be out here..."

"There's no way in hell I'm traveling with that bastard! I'd rather face _them _than have him as our leader" Rei spat, wiping around on Kaede, yelling loud enough that everyone on the bus could hear her; Shidou's followers all looked to Shidou to see him sigh.

"It sounds like I won't be able to do anything to change her mind...she's just a lost cause." Shidou said, a sadistic grin on his face. "To bad..."

"How can you say that!" Takashi growled at him before jumping from the bus to try and help Kaede get Rei back onto the bus.

"Just until we get to the city! Just bear with him till then!" Kaede said, following as Rei kept walking away from the bus, grabbing her by the arm; he knew now that there was something about Shidou that Rei was telling them, that undoubtedly had to do something with what he had seen earlier, the blood stained, fearful face of that students and Shidou walking away calmly as his student was eaten right behind him.

Takashi was just about to catch up when there was a crashing sound to the left; a bus was speeding towards Rei and Kaede and, on closer look, Takashi could see people inside, along with _them _inside, attacking the living.

"S-shit! Get out of the way!" he yelled, Kaede seeing the bus as well and heading Takashi's warning, grabbing Rei and running inside a nearby tunnel; the bus overturned after the driver was pulled from his seat, and the bus came to a skidding halt in front to the tunnel, completely blocking the path.

Shortly after, the bus exploded in flames, and Takshi quickly ran to it, followed shortly by Saeko, who joined him.

"Rei! Himoura!" Takashi yelled past the bus.

"Y-yeah, we're fine!" Kaede's voice came a few seconds later. "There's no way we can get around this...we'll have to meet up somewhere else!"

"Let's meet up at...Higashi Police station!" Takashi yelled back after a second of thought, Saeko watching his back and taking out any of _them _limping towards them, drawn by the crashes noise. "Five o'clock today, or tomorrow at the same time, okay!"

"Got it. Higashi Police station, 5 o'clock. I'll see you there!" Kaede yelled back from the side of the bus he and Rei were on, and helped her up. "We need to get going, Rei"

On the otherside, Takashi and Saeko returned to the bus, Saeko closing the door behind them.

"We can't keep going this way, Shizuka-senesi..." Saeko said as Shizuka restarted the bus, turning it around. "I'll take us down another route!"

Back with Rei and Kaede, they had exited the other end of the tunnel and were out in the open again; however, they suddenly heard groaning, and one of _them _suddenly jumping onto Kaede from a leadge high up. _It _had been a biker, and his head was luckily encased in a helmet, so _it _couldn't bite Kaede...yet. _It's _attempts to bite Kaede were wild enough to start loosening the helmet, Kaede holding _it _as far as he could, but the helmet slowly falling off was becoming a big problem.

Behind them, Rei had taken action, looking for something heavy enough to bash _it's _head in; just as _it _slammed _it's _head into Kaede's face in an attempt to bite him, Rei picked up a slab of concrete. As Kaede pushed _it's _head back, Rei slammed the concrete into the back of _it's _head. The body slumped over, and Kaede pushed it off of him.

"You okay?" Rei asked, holding her hand out to Kaede, who took it and stood up with Rei's help; the two sighed and looked around. "Can we really walk all the way into the city like this...?"

"We don't really have any choise...wait..." Kaede muttered, looking around the area. "That guy's bike should be near by..."

It didn't take long for Kaede to spot it laying on the side of the road, the key still in the ignition. With a victorious smile, he and Rei walked over to the bike, lifting it onto it's wheels.

"Do you have a licnece?" Rei asked skeptically. "More importantly, do you know how to drive?"

"Yeah, actually. It's customary for highschool students to dive without on, right?" Kaede said with a grin as he got onto the bike, Rei sitting on the back with him with a soft smile, holding her spear to the side as Kaede started the bike up.

'The world may have ended...' Kaede thought to himself as he drove off with Rei holding onto him tightly with one arm around his waist. '...but there's no way we're just gonna give up on living!'

The two traveled in silence, passing many crashes and burning houses; the path to the city in complete chaos, but not a soul in sight, dead or alive, but plenty of blood on the ground. As they neared the city, they crossed a bridge, the sound of an approaching jet suddenly drowning the sound of the bike. Rei turned to see that the jet was lowering it's path to fly along side the bridge, keeping pace with them for awhile. Rei waved excitedly at the pilot as they rode along with the jet until it broke off and flew away. Rei frowned slightly and hugged against Kaede tighter, making him blush and pull to a stop, watching the jet fly out of sight.

"They were flying so low just now...why didn't they help us...?" Rei asked softly as she too, watching the jet disappear.

"It's the same as the helicopter on the school roof...they have a specific job to do, and they can't help us..." Rei replied with a frown as he looked back at the road, looking around at the nearby buildings.

"Why did we stop anyways...?" Rei asked curiously, looking around as well, not of what to be looking for though.

"Oh...we need to find a gas station" Kaede replied with a slight blush, remembering how Rei's breasts were pressed to his back before they stopped, and pointed to the gas gauge that was near empty. "We're running out of gas..."

"I think there's one after a few more traffic lights" Rei replied, looking at the gauge as well and frowning; Kaede nodded and started down the road again, Rei grabbing hold of him as he did, slowly picking up speed.

As Kaede drove, he kept an eye out for the mentioned gas station, noticing it was starting to get late now, the sun was starting to set now. He felt Rei's grip suddenly tightened around his waist.

"Himoura-san! Up there, at the next intersection!" Rei yelled, pointing with her spear at a police car, just barely peaking from behind a building at the interesction they were coming up to.

"Heh heh...we're riding without helmets or a license on a stolen bike! We're sure to be pulled over, eh?" Kaede joked as he directed the bike towards the police car. "Don't tell me you're scared of dealing with the police after fighting so many of _them?"_

Kaede brought the bike to a stop as they came to the intersection, both their eyes widening.

"Y-you're...kidding me, right...?" Rei muttered; a truck had rammed into the side of the car, and the two police officers inside were both dead; none the less, Rei got off the bike and started walking to the car.

"H-hey! It might be dangerous, Rei!" Kaede said, getting off the bike as well.

"I'm gonna look for something that might be useful to us" Rei replied, pausing and turning back to him. "Well, come help me!"

Kaede nodded as he walked over to the care as well, Rei taking the right side and Kaede taking the left. After a few moments, they returned to the bike, and placed what they had found on the bikes seat; a gun, a pair of hand cuffs and a collapsible baton.

"Do you know how to shoot one of these?" Rei asked hopefully as she held up the Smith & Wesson Model 37 revolver to Kaede.

"Yeah, actually" he replied, taking the gun and looking it over before opening the cylinder, checking the bullets. " Just as I thought...only five shots."

"Here, hold out your hand" Rei said, Kaede doing as instructed, and watched as Rei dropped five more bullets into his hand, noticing her's was covered with blood. "The other police man had them...his gun was broken, so I took the bullets."

As Rei spoke, she cleaned her hands on a handkerchief she had taken from the police man she searched. Kaede watched for a second before closing the gun and slipping it in one pocket, slipping the bullets in the other.

"You're pretty amazing, Rei...wasn't expecting you to know anything about guns..." Kaede said as he tossed the handcuffs, doubting they'd need them against _them, _and handed Rei the compact baton.

"Yeah, my dad carries one, so he showed me the basic stuff" Rei replied as she picked her spear up from were she had left it. "Should I throw this out, now that we have a gun?"

"No, it's best if you keep it, just in case" Kaede replied as he got back on the bike and motioned Rei to do the same. "Come on, we need to get going..."

Rei nodded and got onto the back of the bike, Kaede starting it up and they continued down the road until reaching the gas station, Kaede pulling up to a pump and stepping off the bike along with Rei.

"Oh damnit..." Kaede muttered as he looked at the pumps, noticing Rei's confused look, and motioned to the pump. "This is a self service place, so we need to put in a card or money..."

"Well do it then!" Rei shot back, crossing her arms.

"I-I'm broke..." Kaede said with a shrug and a frown. "I used my money yesterday for lunch..."

"...you suck" Rei said softly, turning her nose from him; Kaede's hand shot out to her, making her flinch before his hand stopped, his palm up.

"Lemme borrow some money!" Kaede said awkwardly.

"...I...left my wallet in my bag..." Rei replied, looking away again with a light frown.

"Jeez, what a hypocrite..." Kaede muttered, looking over to the store before walking towards it. "Scream if anything happens, okay, Rei?"

Keade continued to the store, entering and taking a look around as Rei remained by the bike, unknowing of the eyes watching her. Inside, Kaede found the cash register on the counter and checked it; with a frown, he saw it was locked and couldn't find any keys or dead employees to find the key to it. After taking a look around, he found a crowbar and went back to the register, a grin forming on his face.

"Heh...I've wanted to do this for awhile, actually..." Kaede muttered before bashing the register with the crow bar until is was forced open.

Outside, Rei winced at the sudden banging, figuring out what Kaede must be doing by now.

"He can do whatever he wants now..." Rei sighed before giving a small smile. "...I guess that could be said with all of us."

Back inside, Kaede picked up a few bills and began walking back in when he suddenly heard Rei suddenly screamed, running back outside to see Rei being held by some big guy, holding a knife to her neck.

"Hey bro. You're girlfriend here's a good catch. Heh heh..." he said, watching Kaede draw his katana with a swift motion; he pressed the knife closer to Rei's neck, his grip tightening. "Whoa there buddy. Drop the sword buddy, or I'll slit her pretty neck...it would be a shame though; everyone in the world's turning into monsters, so their ain't no bitches left."

"Are you insane?" Kaede growled, however, ke complied and tossed his sword a few feet to the side.

"Ha! Insane? No shit! I had to kill each one of my family when they turned into monsters. Busted each of their heads open; my mom, dad, my granny...my kid sister and little brother too!" He bit back, and started laughing loudly. "I'm colder than ice and without a shread of decency!"

His hands suddently grabbed ahold of Rei's breasts, holding them tightly; Keade growled and took a step towards them, but was stopped by him pressing his knife to Rei's throat again, watching him as Rei squirmed and screamed at his touch, but he held her tightly against him, preventing her from getting away; he was just too big for her to fight off.

"Ahh, your voice and tits are so fucking great! Yah got nice big milk jugs girly! Hehehe!" he yelled over Rei's screams, Kaede's fists tightening.

"You son of a bitch! Get your fucking hands off her!" Kaede yelled, held at bay only by the knife at Rei's neck. "You really think this is going to make anything better!"

"No, but at least I get to go out fuckin' some hot bitches!" the man laughed over Rei yelling Kaede's name. "Now, your gonna take that bike of yours, and get the hell outta here!"

"It's empty-!" Kaede started before being cut off by the man again.

"You broke open the cash register; fill it up!" he yelled, pointing the knife at Kaede before pressing it threateningly at Rei's throat again. "Get to it!"

Reluctantly, Kaede complied, already deciding to use the gun on the man, and watching for an opening; he was using Rei as a shield for most of his body, his eyes discreetly watching for an opening. The only thing of the man that was kept open was his knee caps, Rei's legs barely acting a sheild for his lower body. Kaede finished filling the gas tank and looked back at the man and Rei.

"Alright, now get the fuck out of here!" he yelled, motioning Kaede to the bike with the knife.

"You know, you really should let her go...I'll forget everything that you've done so far" Kaede said, deciding to try talking at least once more.

"Are you fuckin' deaf? I said to beat it, fucker!" the man yelled. "Don't get cocky; you don't have shit over me!"

"Oh? You think so?" Kaede replied coldly, his hand going for his pocket and drew the revolver from his pocket, jumping off to the side as the man's eyes widened under his hat.

Two shots rung out, and them man dropped, screaming. Now on the ground, Kaede quickly grabbed his katana and scrambled up, just as he reached for Rei, who had been stunned still by Kaede's sudden sharp shooting. She screamed as the man started lunging his knife at her, but Kaede stabbed him through the shoulder, making him drop his knife and scream again.

"You should have just let her go..." Kaede said coldly as he twisted the blade, making him yell, and withdrew the sword from his shoulder and began walking to the bike; Rei got over her shock, looking down at him and angrily kicked him in the stomach. "Leave him; he's not worth it. Plus we've made alotta noise already."

As Kaede spoke, Rei could now hear the groaning and shuffling feet of _them _approach. Rei nodded and left the man screaming, joining Kaede on the bike. With one last look at the man with no remorse in their eyes, the drove off, ignoring his cries and yells not to leave him, to disabled to move now.

As they drove back into the dark city they ignored his cries, that echoed for several blocks before finally dieing out, Rei and Kaede silent. for awhile.

"We'll have to deal with this shit everyday now..." Kaede muttered lightly.

"R-really...?" Rei replied, somewhat surprised before shaking her head. "No, you're right..."

'Doing something like that...ended our humanity as we knew it then and there...' Kaede thought, the two falling into silence once more for a few blocks until Rei asked a question that had been bugging her.

"Himoura-san...were did you learn to shoot like that?" Rei asked, leaning against Kaede more.

"Oh...uh, I wasn't actually born in Japan..." Kaede said, figuring he should start from the beginning. "I was actually born in American, and was raised by my dad for most of my life; he was a real gun nut, so when I turned nine, he started teaching me how to use one, and four years makes you pretty proficient, even though it's been four more years since I last fired one."

His explanation was followed by a shrug, knowing himself it was quite the out of the ordinary story; at least he didn't have to explain much more, the rest of it even more strange. Rei didn't ask anything more, and they continued on into the night in silence. They rode through the night, it being to late to stop anywhere even if they wanted to, their goal much too important to them; none the less, Rei began dozing off at some point and leaving Kaede to his thoughts. Next thing Kaede knew, the sun had risen, and they were nearing the bridges into the mainland. As they approched the bridges, Kaede quickly took a sharp turn onto a side road along the river and skid to a halt, waking Rei up instantly.

"W-what's wrong, Kaede?" Rei asked as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, having not been thrown from the bike thanks to her hold of Kaede.

"They've got the bridge blocked off; look" Kaede said, motioning to the bridge to see it completely packed with cars and people and what seemed to be bulldozers blocking the other side about half way.

"It looks like we really won't be able to cross after all..." Rei mutered, looking back at the bridge as well, looking at Kaede's back, but she had seen something out of the corner of her eye.

She looked up down the road and, sure enough, Takashi, Saeko, Shizuka, Kouta, and Saya all walking towards their direction. Rei quickly jumped from the bike and began running towards them, alerting the rest of the group of their presence.

"Ah, that's..." Shizuka said, being the first one to notice Rei running towards them with Kaede close behind, pushing a bike along; Shizuka was cut off by Rei jumping and hugging her tightly as Kaede propped the bike up.

"Not exactly the right meeting place, but it still works, huh?" Takashi said to Kaede. "Good to see you guys alright; any problems?"

"No, not really..." Kaede said, desiding not to tell them about the incedent at the gas station just yet. "It's good to see you all are okay. I'm guessing you had the same problem with at the bridges?"

"Not exactly; we left the bus before we even got to the bridges. The streets out of the city were packed to a stand still" Saya answered his question. "But we would have had the same problem with the bridges, it looks like..."

"Yeah, it seems they've shut down all transportation over to the mainland..." Kaede muttered, looking back at the bridge once more, then back at Takashi. "But, more importantly, what are we going to do now? We all lived over on the other side of the river..."

"Certainly, we need to get across, but how?" Saeko stated thoughtfully. "How about upstream?"

"They're working on constructing a river dike up there so we can't cross, and I don't think it'd be any shallower upstream..." Saya said, also trying to think.

"Um...I think we should go settle down for today and get some rest" Shizuka said, seeing how tired Kaede and Rei looked. "I don't think any of us got much sleep last night..."

"It's still relatively early though...around noon or so..." Saya started protesting, but after seeing how everyone else was tired, she feeling herself a bit worn out as well, she stopped.

"But were can we find somewhere safe to stay?" Kouta asked, again putting a halt to their plans, or so they thought.

"I actually know a place we can use. It's in walking distance too" Shizuka said as she felt the heavy atmosphere after Kouta's question.

"Your boyfriend's place?" Saya asked with a sly grin, making the nurse fluster.

"N-no! This is different; it's one of my girlfriend's places" Shizuka said, waving her hands as she explained. "She's always busy with work at the airport so she gave me a key; I'm watching over the place."

"Is it an apartment?" Kaede asked, leaning against the bike. "And does it have a good veiw and a gate?"

"Yeah, it's a mezonet apartment, so it's right on the river...and there's a convenience store right by it too!" Shizuka said, nodding and remembered something else. "Oh, and after we're done there, she has a huge car that's like a tank with four doors!"

"I"m so worn out after today and yesterday. I just wanna rest some place and take a shower..." Saya added as she brushed some hair from her face.

"It's decided then; Shizuka-sensei and I will go check out this place on the bike" Takashi looked over at Kaede, who nodded and took a step away from the bike, allowing Takashi to step to in and get on "...okay. Sensei, get on the back."

Shizuka nodded and did as she was told, holding Takashi tightly with both hands wrapped around him, but was a bit too low for Takashi's initial liking; none the less, he speed off, the rest of the group following at their own pace behind them.

"Y-you know sensei, you don't have to hold on so tightly..." Takashi muttered as the drove down the streets, already having the directions from Shizuka.

As they arrived at the house, Takashi could already tell it was a good place to stay, there being fences around the house that would be hard for the living to get over. Takashi's eyes finally fell on the car in the driveway and his face faltered.

"You...really weren't kidding..." Takashi muttered, making Shizuka cock her head to the side before she noticed the rest of the group nearing the apartment.

"Oh, here they come" Shizuka said, waving happily at the group as they approached.

Once they joined Takashi and Shizuka, the group began checking the house out too, Kouta and Saya slightly dumb-struck over the armoured vehical.

"A-a humvee?" Kouta gasped as he stared at the car. "J-just what kind of girlfriend is this...?"

"The fences are high, so _they _shouldn't be able to get in, right? We'll be able to sleep peacefully like this" Rei said happily.

"Komuro!" Kaede suddenly hissed, his hand going to the katana; the warning drew their attention to were Kaede was looking and saw several of _them _pouring from the open windows. "It looks like _they're_ already inside..."

"Takagi, do you have anything I can use?" Takashi asked as he pushed his sleeves up, Saya searching through the bag she was carrying.

"We found a gun earlier, if you know how to shoot one?" Kaede offered, drawing his sword and pulling the revolver from his pocket, Kouta nearly drooling as he watched.

"Uh, give it to Hirano; I've never shot a gun before" Takashi said, watching as the gun was passed to Kouta, and turned just in time to see Saya handing him a crowbar.

"Will this work?" she asked, getting a nod and Takashi took the crowbar. "Is this okay though...?"

"Yeah. _They're _over the fence already, so we need to take care of _them _first" Saeko said as her hand tightened around her wooden sword; with a nod from Takashi to Rei, she opened the gates into the grounds of the apartments.

"Let's go!" Takashi yelled as he, Kaede and Saeko rushed in, shortly followed by Rei and Kouta, Saya and Shizuka staying outside the gates until the grounds were cleared of _them._

It was around mid afternoon when they were done completely flushing out and destroying all of _them _in the area; none of them wanted to admit it, but they had all changed. They weren't fighting to escape, or only when necessary anymore; they were taking the offensive, and attacking the undead to better their survival. There were no second thoughts, no hesitation; they were fighting to live.

As the slaughter died down, Kaede mentioned they should get rid of the bodies, and so they did; with help from Kouta, they figured out a way to move the dead bodies with as little physical strain as possible with a tarp, and they soon had the house and courtyard cleaned of corpses. They were certainly tired, but there was little time to rest for the men of the group; when they entered the house, the could hear the bath starting and, no doubt, the girls would be taking a bath soon, leaving them for look out through the night.

Takashi sighed and looked around, he and Kaede were dumping the last body onto the street, and there wasn't a single one of _them _in sight for several blocks. Takashi wanted to feel happy about the break in fighting the undead, but the lack of _them _made him feel uneasy, like something big was going to happen soon...

**Chapter 2, end**


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: Again, I'll be skipping some parts, particularly the happenings on the bridge during this chapter, since they will play out the same in the manga/anime. Also, someone mae a good point; I've fogotten to put the pairings up...sorry bout that~**

**Pairings: TakashixSaeko, KaedexRei and KoutaxSaya, more may be added later.**

**Chapter 3: In the DEAD of Night**

_"Because of the alarming rate at which the 'killer disease' has spread, many of the world's governments are beginning to collapse. Just before we lost contact with the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church in Vatican City, he made a statement denying that this is divine punishment, however, many maintain that this indeed the case. The leaders of Islamic countries are putting up a strong resistance..."_

The news reports droned on over the sounds of a struggle in the main bedroom; Shizuka had mentioned that there was a safe there so, while all the girls were taking a bath, Takashi, Kouta and Kaede were tying to get it open. They had gotten one open to find a small stockpile of ammunition, telling Kouta and Kaede what was in the other half of the safe. The sounds of the girls wafted up through the house as well, drowning out the reports from the t.v at some points.

_"...the researchers of the Ministry of Public Welfare Development who were investigating the killer disease made a statement saying they were abandoining the government facilities in Tokyo. Over two million people have contracted the disease throughout the country. The rapid spread to the ten million people worldwide has brought society to a standstill..."_

"Whoa, sensei...they really are humongous..." Rei couldn't help but comment, looking across the bath at Shizuka's massive breasts.

"You can say that again..." Shizuka said as she lifted her breasts slightly out of the water.

"Urk...you're pretty full of yourself..." Rei replied with a mischievous grin; there was some splashing before Rei finally caught Shizuka, squeezing her breasts playfully from behind. "Whoa! They're soft too!"

_"Due to the large number of victims to the killer disease, we are unable to continue broadcasting from this studio. It has been decided that we will resume broadcasting once we are out at sea. We will not be airing the scheduled programming for the hour. Goodbye everyone, and good luck!"_

"It sounds like an h-game over there..." Saya muttered as she washed her hair beside Saeko, the splashing, giggling and even moaning starting to get on her nerves. "Why do we have to all take a bath together anyways?"

"You know know the answer already, don't you, Takasgi-san?" Saeko replied; she, unlike Saya, was happy to see Rei and Shizuka in such good moods even after what they've been through so far.

With a passive smile on her face, Saeko switched the water to cold and sprayed Saya down the back with the hose, getting a cute cry from Saya.

"...your voice is cuter than I thought." Saeko said, giggling softly not realizing Saya was already preparing her retaliation, sneakily filling a pan with cold water.

When it was full, Saya likewise poured the cold water down Saeko's back, the purple haired girl quickly hugging her knees to try and get away, only a few gasps and moans escaping her lips. She looked up at Saya when it was over with a triumphant look in her eyes and sighed.

"Gah! I didn't get much of a reaction out of you..." Saya growled, her hands cleaching around the pan.

* * *

"Sounds like their having fun..." Takashi muttered as he took a break, Kaede and Kouta working on prying the safe open with the crowbar Takashi had used earlier.

"Wanna see if there's anything they need protection from in there?" Kaede said with a sly smirk, he and Kouta taking a small breather.

"I don't wanna die just yet..." Takashi sighed, looking back at the two and noticed the door of the safe had given away slightly; he walked over to the safe again and grabbed hold of the crowbar again. "Alright, once more with all we've got!"

There were mumbles of agreement before the three teens pulled back against the crowbar hard; the door started giving away, and shot open, all three teens falling on the ground in a panting heap, Takashi being the first to recover.

"Damn, that hurt..." he muttered, sitting up and looking into the safe that they just pried open. "Uh...hey, Hirano..."

Almost instantly, Kouta was on his feet, looking into the locker as well; there were four guns, two shotguns and two rifles.

"Just as I thought..." Kouta said with a sadistic grin.

"This is Shizuka-sensei's friend's house..." Takashi muttered as Kaede likewise stood, looking into the safe with a surprised look. "...just what kinda of friends does she have?"

With little hesitation, Kouta grabbed the first gun on the left, pulling back the slide and checking the chamber before pressing it against his shoulder and checking the sights.

"A Springfield M1A1 Super Match, huh? But it's only semi-auto..." Kouta mumbled to himself as he checked other aspects of the gun. "Well, the M14 series is full auto. This is less wasteful when it comes to ammunition..."

"Uh, Hirano...?" Takashi tried speaking to him, but Kaede put his hand on his shoulder, stopping him and offered no explanation other than a mumbled 'gun nuts and their guns are best left alone...' from Kaede.

"This is a twenty round magazine! This is illegal in Japan. Illegal! Heh heh..." Kouta continued, Takashi giving up and accepting that Kouta was in his own world now; he watched as Kouta set the gun down and grabbed the next rifle. "A Knight's SR equipped with a scope...no...you can't get that kind of thing in Japan, so it must be an AR-10 that's been modified from top to bottom!"

"There's a crossbow in the locker still too"" Kaede muttered as he grabbed one of the shotguns from the locker, Takashi grabbing the other. "A Barnett Wildcat C5; a hunting crossbow made in England, if I'm not mistaken and this..."

Kaede looked at the shotgun he had just picked up, drawing Kouta's attention; the gun outaku was about to speak, but Kaede beat him to it.

"A modified Remington M870 MK1, with an extended ammo hold, bayonet house, and ammo holders on the stalk..." Kaede said, holding the gun to his shoulder and checking the sights. "...this one's mine."

"B-but-!" Kouta started to interject, but Kaede turned the barrel on Kouta; even if it was empty, Kouta still ducked, his hands over his head. "H-hey! Don't point that thing at what you're not intending to shoot!"

"Alright, but it's still mine" Kaede said, leaning the shotgun on his shoulder and looked at Takashi. "Ah, that's-"

"An Ithica M35 riot shotgun!" Kouta finished for him, stars in his eyes. "It was designed by an American. It's one bad-ass shotgun, used in the Vietnam war!"

"I-I see...?" Takashi muttered, looking at the shortgun in his hand before likewise pointing it at Kouta, who again jumped and ducked.

"D-damnit! What did I just tell Himoura-san!" Kouta yelled, a serious look suddenly dawning on his face. "The only one's you can point it at are..."

"_Them. _That's the best way to use these..." Takashi said gravely, then chuckled. "It's still funny to see your reaction, Hirano..."

"Please, call me Kouta, both of you." he replied, looking at Takashi and Kaede before walking back to the safe, grabbing a few boxes of ammo and sitting on the ground. "Come give me a hand with the ammo; it's pretty tough to get these bullets in..."

"Same here then; call me Kaede...or Kei, wichever you perfer" Kaede said, adding the second part after some thought, sitting as well and setting his gun down, grabbing a box of shells to start to load the shotgun he claimed as his own.

"Yeah, me too; Takashi's fine from now on" Takashi said, sitting down as well as Kouta handed him a magazine, pushing a box of ammo to him and showed him how to load the bullets one by one. "So, did you two learn this stuff from just airsoft guns?"

"Hell no" was their responce that came at the same time; Kaede and Kouta blinked, looking at each other, the oddity of the two saying the samething at the same time surprising Takashi more than their responses the fact that they've handled real guns before.

"You first..." Keade said with a light grin. "...Kouta-san."

"Ah...well, when I was in America, I went through army training...a Blackwater instructor took me under his wing and taught me for a month" Kouta said with a light grin before nodding to Kaede. "Your turn."

"I was born in America, and lived there till I was thirteen; my dad taught me how to use a gun when I turned nine...four years of gun training doesn't wear off one bit after another four years, it seems..." Kaede explained to Takashi and Kouta like he had Rei the night before.

"W-wow...this is almost too perfect..." Takashi muttered in amazment at the two. "Even more amazing though is this friend of Shizuka-sensei's...just what kind of person is she?"

"Well, she's defiantly not a regular citizen...I'm guessing S.A.T., though, normally unmarried police would been living in special housing dorms. Looking at this place though, I'm guessing she comes from a rich family." Kouta replied with a yawn as he set another filled clip aside and began filling another one. "Unless you boyfriend's loaded, or she's crooked."

The three's thoughts were interrupted by yet another squeal from the bathroom and muffled words from the girls inside, leaving what was going on to the boy's imagination, Kaede and Kouta giving each other the 'I wanna peek' look and looked over at Takashi to see if he agreed, but the teen in question only shook his head with a sigh as he stood and walked out onto the balcony were he could just make out the bridge.

"They've...gotten pretty loud though..." Kaede said, at least trying to make up some excuse to interrupt the girl's bath, watching as Kouta got up as well, following Takashi out with a pair of binoculars in his hand after they finished loading the clips. "_They _are attracked to sound so..."

"We're fine" Takashi replied, gravely, having accepted the binoculars from Kouta and took a better look at the bridge, still not seeing much, but a good bit. "Hey, Kaede, turn on the t.v..."

"Yeah..." Kaede mummbled, pressing the on button to the t.v. and watched it flicker to life, a local news broadcast already playing, much to Kaede's suprise. "Nice call..."

"I can see the news vans from here" Takashi replied as he handed the binoculars back to Kouta so he could take a look as well, the news report droning on in the background.

_"This is a satellite broadcast for the Tokonosu area only. The Tonkonosu police's west branch's blockade is still in effect, preventing free movement across the bridge by civillians." _the news caster announced, on scene at the bridge that Takashi could barely see, not that they needed to now; the news broadcast giving them a perfect veiw of what was going on, including the blockade of police cars and even bulldozers blocking the bridge off from any vehicals. "_The killer disease has spread throughout Japan, and even the entire world. Because of this, people around the globe are in protest over how the situation is being handled. Further more, According to reports we've been receiving, many are fleeing to the ocean until this issue is resolved. I repeat, this is a satellite broadcast; only televisions in the Tokonosu area are receiving this signal..."_

"This is too much like a movie..." Takashi muttered, listening to the broadcast from the balcony while Kouta moved along it's leingth, trying to get a better veiw of the bridge with the binoculars.

"I'm going down stairs" Kaede sighed and stood, leaving the t.v. on; Takashi shot him a look, but he waved it off as he left the room, leaving the Remington 870 he claimed as his own leaning against the bed along with his sword. "To get something to drink, jeez.."

"It looks like something outta an apocalypse movie...hey, what's that over there...?" Kouta said, not noticing Kaede even left, from the opposite side of the balcony, able to see a group of people, just barely, but he could tell they were holding up signs of some sort. "Protesters?"

_**"The police will pay for this opression! We are the people! This is all the fault of our government and of America!" **_what seemed to be a construction worker yelled in the background of the news report, answering Kouta's thoughts. _**"It's because of their new weapon development! They're responible for the spread of the killer disease! We will bring down this establishment!"**_

_"I'm back, and the police still have the bridge barricaded. It seems that a group of people has began to protest; they're speaking out against the police! We are still unclear as to the extent of their organization..."_

"Is he saying _they _are the result of colaberation between the Japanese and American governments to develop a new weapon...?" Takashi growled, haivng taken over watching the news program while Kaede was gone. "That's crazy! It a phenomenon that dead bodies are staring to walk and attack the living! There's no scientific explaination for it!"

"They're just trying to cause hysteria to get more followers..." Kouta sighed, walking back into the room and offering Takashi the binoculars, who refused, then set them down on the bed. "Maybe it's one of the effects of _that_ disease? They're left-wing radicals, right?"

"They're defanatly left-wingers...making everyone try and turn on the government and America, even though their in the same conditon as us" Takashi replied with a frown, watching the t.v. as the reporter tried interveiwing the leader of the protesting group, only for him to sprout more of his political opinions not noticing Kouta's expression as if he just realized something. "They're no different from right-wing fascists; it's such a horrible disease..."

"Doesn't that mean you'd be the same way, Takashi?" Kouta asked with a moching grin.

"My mom's co-works must be doing the something simmilar right now, but not me." Takashi said with a shake of his head and a frown at Kouta's poking at his parents. "It's horrible; they don't do anything to stop bullying at school but they go out of their way to speak against war."

"What does your mom do anyways?" Kouta asked as he sat on the ground again, working with the guns again, checking everything once more.

"She's an elementary school teacher; she teaches a first grade class at Onbetsu Elementary on the other side of the river" Takashi explained as Takashi walked over and sat beside Kouta, leaning against the bed as he picked up the Ithica and looked it over. "Her students propbably haven't been able to escape...they're human after all...you're gonna have to teach me how to use this, by the way"

"Right...so, is your mom a left-winger?" Kouta asked, nodding as he watched Takashi examine the shotgun, not letting Takashi change the subject so easily. "Is she in the Communist party or something?"

"No way! My mom? She's still pretty young." Takashi said, Kouta readying to ask another question before a gunshot echoed through the night, sounding on the new report shortly after, drawing Takashi's attention to the t.v. and Kouta's to the balcony again.

On the news report, it was reveiled that the police had opened fire on the apporching undead, this broadcast not cutting off when they showed the bodies dropping this time. Kouta had taken up the binoculars again and was out on the balcony, watching what he could from there. The report centered on several of _them _limping towards the police and the police fireing, the bodies dropping to the ground; shortly after, a woman with a child in her arms, stained in blood, tried approching the police.

_**"Please! Don't shoot! We're alive!" **_the woman yelled as she neared the police; the girl in her arms suddently twitched and her head shot up, biting the woman in the neck and tearing a chuck of flesh away, stunning every body but the protesters.

_**"This is because of the acursed establishment! And we as citizens will rise against this!" **_the leader shouted to his followers, pumping them up against the 'evils' commited by the government.

_**"Please stop this needless savagery!" **_the protesters chanted in their corner of the bridge; with a word form the reporter, the camer panned to a police officer approching the group of protesters, focusing on him as he stopped infront of the leader.

The words that the office spoke were drowned out by the surrounding noise, however, the protest's leader's reply wasn't.

_**"Leave? Ha! You guys are just trying to trick us! You're just trying to cover up the conspiracy involving the government and America!" **_the man bit back at the officer, his followers agreeing and even going as far as saying that it was the police that should leave; the officer said something else, but it was again unheard through the news report.

However, it was obvious from the protester's reply that the officer asked them to leave once more, only to be met with refusal; without hesitation, the officer drew his gun, and fired, shooting the leader straight through the head, all on camera. There was a bit of the following panic shown, hower, the broadcast was shortly cut off, changing to a picture of some house, comepletly irrelevant to the situation.

"...they immediately changed the broadcast to something else..." Kouta muttered, looking over at Takashi with an akward smile, wondering how the media could be so selective about these kind of things.

As Kouta looked over at Takashi, he squeaked in suprise and fell back as hands came from the shadows around Takashi's head; Takashi noticed Kouta's odd reaction, but not the hands, and gave him an odd look before the hands suddently wrapped around his neck..and pulled him back into a familar pair of soft breasts.

"Komuro-kun~" Shizuka's slurred voice rang out as she hugged Takashi to her chest, kissing his cheeck and her hand seemed to go straight for Takashi's crotch.

"S-sensei? Are you drunk?" Takashi ask, squirming out from Shizuka's hold, only blushing when he saw she was only wrapped in a damp towel, be hair and body likewise wet.

"Just a teensy weensy bit...fufuu~" she giggles softly, before her attention was turned on Kouta. "Ah hah~! Kouta-chaaan"

"C-chan? Er, uh..." Kouta seemed too dazled to notice Shizuka jumping at him next, hugging him and kissing him, Kouta nearly fainting from the rush of blood to his face if it weren't for Takashi drawning Shizuka's attention from him.

"Don't speak so loudly, sensei; tone it down a notch!" Takashi wispered loudly to enphasise his point as Shizuka turned to him, letting Kouta go, who simply fell in a heap on the ground.

"Whaat? No way! It's so quite outside it's scary, so I'm gonna talk like this!" Shizuka pouted, raising her voice slightly as she jumped up and down a bit like a child, which made Takashi blush none the less, the way her body bounced with the tantrum anything but childish or innocent.

"Kouta, go be a lookout. As for you..." Takashi muttered, looking at Shizuka before he picked her up onto his his back, the drunk blond leaning on his shoulder, giggling softly as Takashi got a better hold on her, his hand falling on Shizuka's bare backside; he veagly noticed Kouta stand up, his glasses nearly falling off his face, and float over to the balcony.

"Hyan~! You're touching my butt~" Shizuka whined softly, smiling at Takashi and ruffled his hair as he sighed and carried her out of the room. "You're just a little pervert, Komuro-kun~"

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying it..." Takashi muttered with a dreamy smile on his face and a light blush, turning his head to her slightly.

"Enjoying what, exactly?" Rei's voice suddently cut in; she was standing at the stair landing, Takashi noticing Kaede sitting on the second landing between the second floor and the ground floor.

Like Shizuka, Rei's hair was still damp, and she was only dressed in a light blue tanktop and a pair of panties, which were pretty visable. As if it were normal, Rei stepped up to Takashi in such reveiling clothes, and eyed him dangerously, the silence only broken by Shizuka's drunken giggling.

"U-uhh...nothing..." Takashi replied nerviously as he shifted Shizuka on his back, her giggles and calling Takashi a pervert once more not helping much.

"Ahh, I see two Takashi's..." Rei suddently said, the previous mood seemingly forgotten as Rei wavered, and fell on her butt.

"Have...you been drinking too?" Takashi asked as he looked down at Rei, who was in the middle of a giggle fit now, much like Shizuka.

"Yeah...I was tired, and so much has happened today...and my dad..." Rei's mood suddenly took a change for the worse as she recalled the short, unhappy conversation with her dad at the school.

As Rei started to tear up, Takashi looked away gravly, not much he could do to compfort her with a naked nurse, now passed out, on his back. Remebering Kaede, he looked over to the black haired teen hopfully. The teen in question sighed and shrugged slightly before standing up and walking up the stairs; when he was halfway up to the landing, Takashi began heading down the stairs as well.

"Maybe I should take Shizuka-sensei...?" Kaede wispered to Takashi, the smell of alcohol on his breath as well; this striked Takashi as odd, but now wasn't the time to ask about Kaede and Rei's rumored relationship.

Takashi continued down the stairs, passing Kaede's small pile of beer cans sitting on the steps were he had just been, and continued down into the living room to lay Shizuka down while Kaede calmed Rei down the best he could. As Takashi covered Shizuka up on a futon already layed out, he noticed Saya already alseep as well on a couch, and blushed; Saya may not have been as well endowed as Shizuka, nor was Rei, for that matter, but the two girls still had their sex apeal, which they seemed to be flaunting quite a bit tonight.

Saya wore a short tanktop and a pair of insainly short shorts and, with the way she was sleeping and were Takashi was standing, he had a near perfect veiw straight down Saya's shirt, and a good veiw of her curves; she, like the other two girls, was still somewhat wet from the bath. Takashi's eyes followed a bead of water trailing between her breasts, his concentration broken by a soft, now familar voice

"Is that Komuro-kun over there?" Saeko asked from the kitchen, drawing Takashi's eyes to her. "Dinner will be done soon, and I'm also preparing lunch for tomarrow too."

"You're a real life-saver, senpai." Takashi muttered as he walked over to join Saeko in the kitchen. "It's tough now that...E-EHHH!"

"Hm? What's wrong?" Saeko asked, looking over her shoulder at Takashi as she readied to sample the curry she was making for dinner.

"N-nothing! Nothing at all!" Takashi stuttered; the sight of Saeko Busuijima in nothing but an apron and black thong panties usually calling for much more of a reaction, but Takashi was a bit worn out by now.

"Oh, this...there weren't any clothes that fit me." Saeko said, noticing Takashi's blush and putting two and two together, looking down at the apron and running her thumbs along the sides, giving Takashi a bit more of a look at her breasts than normally available. "I'll only be wearing this until the laundry finishes...this is truly shameful; I apologize."

"N-no, that's not it." Takashi replied, recovering quickly and lightly smiling at Saeko. "I-I'm just worried about _them _getting inside, that's all..."

You, Hirano and Himoura are so cautious. All of the checking and evaluating you three have done has given me a lot of confidence" Saeko said with a smile. "Were is Hirano and Himoura anyways? I thought Himoura was sitting on the stairs..."

"He is; he's further up, with Rei now." Takashi replied; for some reason, it was rather easy for Takashi to say that, Kaede and Rei together, even if he had a crush on her for so long, maybe her period with Hishashi deteriated that love he hand for her?

"Good. Girls can be weak at time and just need to get it out..." Saeko said, inturpting Takashi's thoughts as he gazed up at the stair well, the two unseen at his current spot.

"Even you, senpai?" Takashi askedwithout really expecing an answer out of her.

"We're friends now, so call me Saeko" she replied, not answering his question, but giving him something else to think about.

"S-Sa..." Takashi stuttered, blushing lightly at the offer.

"Practice saying it some other time, but now, you eat" Saeko said with a smile as she fixed Takashi a plate and setting it on the island table in the kitchen, motioning Takashi to sit.

"Alright...itadakimas" Takashi muttered as he sat, taking one last look up the stairs as the a question passed through his mind before he started eating; what were his feeling towards Rei, and why did he feel perfectly fine with leaving her to Kaede?

Meanwhile, back on the landing, Rei was laying her head on Kaede's shoulder, having calmed down from her earlier outburst over her father, and even Hishashi, her ex boyfriend; none the less, Kaede had snapped back on Rei about that matter, which backfired on him initally. With a few words, Kaede was able to calm her down, and now they were just sitting in their own thoughts.

"Neh, Kaede...why didn't we ever become a couple...?" Rei asked after a few moments of silence, Kaede blinking at such an unrelevant question before sighing.

"That's something I should ask you...heh, I asked you out twice after you broke up with Hishashi..." Kaede replied, the words leaving his mouth before he could stop them, looking at Rei, hoping he wouldn't spark another outbrust from Rei; all she did was shift into a more comfortable position.

"Oh yeah. I turned you down both times...what about us now?" she said, asking her question after a slight pause, clairifying her question before Kaede got the wrong idea. "I mean all of us? What do you think will happen...?"

What the question had started out like had suprised Kaede, but after Rei's clairification, Kaede frowned.

"I...don't know, Rei...I really don't know." Kaede said as he stood up suddenly, his face hardening along with his resolve as Rei looked up at him after his answer and suddn movment. "But one thing's for sure; we're still alive, and we're going to stay alive, no matter what!"

"Kaede..." Rei said softly, looking up at him in amazment for a moment before placing her hand on his shoulder, easing him back down onto the stairs, and moved closer to him; she took him by suprise, and pressed her lips to his.

The kiss took Kaede by suprise, his eyes wide before he faded into the kiss, his eyes drifting closed as he felt Rei's body press close to his, her heat...Kaede's hands went to Rei's shoulders and gently pushed her away, even if a kiss was one of the thing he had been wanting from Rei for some time now. Rei looked at him confused for a second and Kaede quickly turned his gaze away from him.

"I-it would be bad if we continued..." Kaede said, hoping Rei would leave it at that; with a sideways galnce, however, it was confirmed Rei already knew.

"You've gotta stiffy~" Rei teased with a smile, however, something else drew her attention away. "Is...that barking?"

"S-shit! That mean's _their _close!" Kaede growled, sliding out from under Rei just as Takashi's feet could be heared rushing up the stairs.

Rei looked to Takashi then to Kaede unsure of what to do in this situation, and neither of the two men offered any directions, both rushing to the room were Kouta was without a word. As they entered, they saw Kouta at the balcony, with a vest of pockets on and Takashi rushed over to him; Kaede took a second, grabbing the M1 that had been propped next to the Remington, opting the rifle with a sight over the shotgun for now and joined the other two at the baclony, noticing Takashi had the Ithica in hand.

"This is bad..." Kouta said, the sounds of groaning and the fence rattling filling Kaede and Takashi's ears before either of them even stepped out onto the balcony.

Just below them, the fence surrounding the apartment were surrounded with _them,_more flooding the streets from the direction of the bridge, a dog barking somewere near the by. Takashi staring, disbelievingly, at the hordes of undead spilling into the city now, some passing and some sticking around the gates of the apartment; neither Kouta or Kaede wanted to accept the sight either, but ignoring it would cost the group their lives, their hands tight on the rifles.

'That's right. That was the second night. That was the night it really began...'

**Chapter 3, end**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: DEAD Night and the DEAD Ruck**

From the balcony, Kouta, Takashi and Kaede all watched as a single survivor ran along the streets, coming to a stop when he was met with a wall of _them_; the teen no older than them had a shotgun however, and blew away several undead before contuing. As the teen continued on, on of the undead he though his killed reached up, tripping him, and allowed others to fall over the teen, flocking around him as _they_ began devouring him, his screams reaching the apartment the group was in.

The three watched gravely, Takashi's hand gripping the Ithaca in his hands tightly as Kouta watched though the scope of the AR-10 and Kaede sat on a high chai that was out on the balcony, the M1 resting against the chair and a plate of half eaten curry sitting on the table.

"Damnit, this is just too cruel!" Takashi growled as he watched yet another survivor get chansed down and eaten, the screams chilling them all to the bones.

"Takashi...!" Kouta called, turning to Takashi with ready look on his face, Takashi looking back at Kouta in responce. "Do you think we should shoot?"

"That should be obvious! Shoot _them...!_" Takashi retorted, Kaede going for the M1 at his feet at this, ready to help out Kouta kill the undead.

"Have you forgotten? _They _react to sound, Komuro-kun. Also.." Saeko's voice came from behind them, coming to check on the three, turning off the lights in the bedroom as she walked towards the balcony; Takashi fell silent, knowing Saeko was right. "Survivors will come flocking here when they see the light and our figures...even if we use everything we have, we won't be able to keep many more people alive. They have to survive on their own; That's exactly what we're doing. I understand if you dissagree, but get used to it! The world has become a place where those with noble causes alone won't survive."

"I got the impression that you thought differently, Busujima-senpai" Takashi replied as Saeko began walking back into the house; he didn't mean to sound so harsh, but his words stopped Saeko in her tracks.

"Don't get me wrong, Komuro-kun. I'm just stating the facts..." Saeko said, turning and giving Takashi a sad smile before looking to Kouta and Kaede. "You two should eat; still not hungry, Hirano-kun?"

Kouta shook his head, watching people eat eachother completely and utterly killing his appitate while Kaede picked up the plate of curry and began eating again. As for Takashi, he had already eated, so he picked up the binoculars and looked out into the carnage happening on the streets.

"Oh, and make sure you look outside descreetly, so you don't attrack anyone" Sake said over her shoulder as she walked back into the house.

Everywere Takashi looked, it was the same thing; the few survivors running, most sreaming, from _them _only to be cornered or tripped and eaten alive by the undead in grusome ways. Takashi almost decided to put the binoculars away when he came across a pair that made him want to throw aside his better udgement and Saeko's words; a father and his young daughter, making their way to a house with the lights still on.

Takashi watched as the father lead his daughter int to the gate, closing it behind them and began knocking on the door; Takashi couldn't hear him, but he could guess he was begging to for he and his daughter to be let in. At some point, the man raised the wrench in his hands, seeming to threaten breaking the door down. After a moment, the man lowered the wrench, and the door opened shortly after.

Takashi gasped loudly and Kouta, who had been sitting on the balcony, hidden by the railings, quickly knelt, resting the rifle on the railing and looked in the same direction as Takashi.

"What is it?" Kaede asked, slipping from his chair and taking a simmilar position with the M1 to see the family inside the house at the doorway, one holding a pole with a knife tied to the end, which he hand stabbed the father with, and withdrew the weapon; after a quick look, Kaede saw the little girl, and put it togther. "S-shit! No way..."

The father backed up as the family closed the door, hitting the gate and knocking it open as he fell to the ground, the little girl rushing to his side, crying and hugging her father as he died. Behind her, one of _them _stumbled through the gate.

"Fuck!" Takashi growled, no longer able to watch, however, a gunshot drew his attention to Kaede, followed shortly by another from Kouta's area, two bodies dropping from behind the girl.

"I didn't even need any practice shots! I was able to get a headshot with a complete stranger's gun; I guess I am gifted after all~" Kouta cheered as he lined up another shot.

"Please, the target wasn't even a hundred meters away, and the sights on these gones were done by a profesional" Kaede interjected, also lining up a shot and firing, dropping another of _them _before _it _reached the girl.

"I thought you guys weren't going to shoot?" Takashi asked sarcastically. "You're risking you life for a total stranger?"

"It's. A. Little. Girl!" both Kaede and Kouta bit back, punctuating each word with a shot of their guns.

"You're going to save her, right? We'll support you from here" Kouta said, Kaede nodding, having a bit of time sence they had taken out the closest of _them _to the little girl.

"You'be better get your ass moving!" Kaede yelled as Takashi rushed into the house, turning back to the scope and taking a few more shots.

"Hey! At lease take a shotgun with you!" Kouta yelled after Takashi, but he was already heading down the stairs, a 'I don't know how to use it!' echoing to Kouta's ears as he turned back to his current task.

As Takashi began down the stairs, Rei had been heading up the stairs to see what the gunshots were about; Takashi pausing as he pulled on his gakuran over his red t-shirt.

"What's going on, Takashi?" Rei asked as she stepped out of the way for him.

"We're helping a little girl; I'm going to get her and bring her back" Takashi explained quickly as he began heading down the stairs again, only for Rei to grab his sleeve, stopping him momentarily.

"I'll go with you then." Rei said, wanting to help.

"No, you guard the enterance; I'm ging to the other side of the street on the bike." Takashi replied firmly; Rei looked like she was about to argue, but she was stopped by Saeko's voice.

"So you're going?" Saeko said from the foot of the stairs with her booken in her hands, looking up at the two, and making eye contact with Rei. "The man has made up his mind."

"Sorry, Busuji...Saeko-san" Takashi replied, correcting himself and using Saeko's first name, as he was instructed to. "But, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't..."

"Of course; I already knew that." Saeko said with a soft smile as Takashi started down the stairs again and went for the door.

"We'll take care of things here" Saeko said with a smile as Takashi passed her, looking over her shoulder at him as Rei also desended the stairs; Takashi gave Saeko a nod, confident that the rest of the group would be alright without him for awhile. "Don't worry; now go already!"

"Takashi!" Rei called as be reached for the door; she walked over to him, and held out the revolver She and Kaede had found the night before. "At least take this with you; you'll be able to hit _them_ at close range, right?"

Takashi nodded, and accepted the gun from Rei, slipping it into his pocket, and opened the door. Rei and Saeko followed him out, the bike on the inside of the fence so Takashi wheeled it up to the gate, were Saeko and Rei were waiting to open it.

"Don't use the gun too much; the sound'll attrack more of _them_ than you'll be able to handle." Saeko said softly as Takashi readied the bike. "Even if the bike makes noise, the gunshot will only attrack more of _them, _and you won't be able to get away."

Takashi simply nodded, pulling on a pair of fingerless gloves as the gound of gunshots above them showing that Kouta and Kaede were still at it. With another nod to the two, Saeko and Ri took out the bars holding the gate shut, and opened them; at the same time, Takashi started the bike up and speed out before _they_ outside the gate had time to react to the noise. Takashi took off down the street, dodging most of _them _in the way.

As Saeko and Rei closed the gate, locking it up again, Saya walked out towards them.

"What was that sound?" Saya asked, groggily; she had been woken up to the sounds of the bike, and the gunshots upstairs.

"Something goo" Rei replied with a smile, ignoring Saya's questioning gaze and looked up were she could see the flashes of Kouta and Kaede's guns.

Durning this time, Kaede had made a run into the bedroom while Kouta covered the little girl, preventing any of _them _from getting close; when he returned, he handed Kouta a full clip and swapped out his own empty one for a new one. Kaede had to pull back the action for the M1, but Kouta, being the gun otaku he was, left a round chambered so there was no need; he simply switched out the empty clip for the full one, and kept firing.

From the balcony and with the help of their scopes, Kaede and Kouta were able to see Takashi arriving at the house the girl was stuck at and whipped the bike around towards the gates. Takashi jumped the bike through the gates and hitting one of _them _neither Kaede or Kouta took out with fears of hitting Takashi; the impact threw the bike's balance off, and Takashi jumped off before it hit the ground, skidding away in a heap.

Takashi recovered quickly however, sighing as he picked up the crowbar that had been on the bike that fell along with him, and walked over to the gate, closing it as he muttered to himself.

"Damn...I need to stop acting like I'm in a comic or something..." Takashi sighed, closing and locking the gate before looking around for the little girl. "S-shit!"

Takashi quickly spun around, the little girl surrounded by two of _them_ looming over her. Back on the balcony, both Kaede and Kouta tried lining up a shot, but they were blocked out by a tree and neither wanted to take a chance and shoot blindly. They both waited, watching to see if they'd have a chance to shoot while the sounds from inside the house echoing up to them, mostly Saya's attempts at waking Shizuka up.

"Sensei! It's time to get up, Shizuka-sensei!" Saya yelled at the sleeping nurse, who groggily opened her eyes and sat up, the blankets and towel falling from her body.

"Eh...? is it breakfast time already~?" she muttered dreamily as she wiped a bit of drool from her chin.

"This is serious damnit!" Saya yelled, pinching and pulling on Shizuka's cheeks to get her fully awake, ignoring Shizuka's wines until she was sure Shizuka was awake.

Once Shizuka was awake, Saya dragged her along up to the bedroom, Rei and Saeko already having been direction on what to do. After having been waken to gunshots, Saya quickly evaluated the situation and it's reprocutions, which all ended out of the group's favor. Her mind quickly began thinking of soultions to the problem, and there was only one logical solution; to leave the house. So Saya had directed Rei and Saeko to start packing up the food and went upstairs to inform Kaede and Kouta of the plan.

"Takagi-san and S-Shizuka-sensei...?" Kouta had left Kaede on the balcony to grab another clip for he and Kaede when Saya walked in the bedroom with a completly nude Shizuka, her lower parts convienently covered by the suitcase she was carrying; Shizuka's hair was disshevled, and she was rubbing the sleep form her eyes, oblivious to the fact that she was naked.

"Hirano!" Saya yelled, making the otaku jump and tear his eyes from the well endowed nurse; in a sort of defence againt Saya, Kouta quickly covered his crotch, but the way he was holding his AR-10 only made it look worse. "Keep working! Only say something if it's absolutly necessary!"

Kouta gulped and nodded, grabbing what he entered the room for and noticed Shizuka packing up clothes in the suitcase she had as Saya tied her hair up in her normal twin tails. Unable to hold his curiousity back, Kouta asked about what was going on.

"We're getting ready to leave!" Saya yelled back, obviously annoyed with Kouta's questioning.

"Eh? but why? This place is well protected-" Kouta started but Saya cut him off.

"There's no way we can stay after all the noise we've already made! We're leaving, and that's it! Bring whatever you can." Saya lashed out before Kouta could finish his complaint, making him jump again and comply, packing up everything from the lockers.

**[A/N: Just a quick note, I'm skipping the part with Takashi and Alice since it's the same as the anime/manga]**

Once Shizuka had finished packing the clothes, she and Saya went down and outside, Rei and Saeko already outside keeping a look out with several bags of food already sitting out and waiting to be loaded into the humvee, which brought another problem to Saya's mind; how would they load the truck? As Saya pondered this, she looked over to Shizuka, who was still naked.

"Shizuka-sensei, you've done enough. Just try to put some clothes on for now..." Saya adressed Shizuka with a sigh, the nurse seeming to only now realize that she was, in fact, nude.

Shizuka quickly made her way back into the house, and Saya sighed, shaking her head. She walked over to were Saeko was keeping an eye out, looking over the gates to see the streets empty.

"Well, as long as we're quite, we should be able to get the car packed and ready..." Saya said softly as she looked over at the humvee. "I was worrying what we were going to do about _them _while we packed up..."

"That's the least of our problems; _they're_ surrounding Komuro-kun now." Saeko replied, motioning down the street; even from were they were at, Saya could see a dence crowd of _them _gathering around a house which she guessed was were Takashi had gone.

"Geh...waht should we do? There's no way he could get back on the bike with all that" Saya mentioned with a frown, Rei nodding in agreement as she tried thinking of something as well.

"Why don't we just go pick him up?" Shizuka offered halfheartedly as she buttoned up a white dress shirt with a plaid skirt the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra obvious to the other girls; not even a second after speaking, the other three turned to Shizuka, making the nurse reget saying anything, squirming under their gazes. "Um...uh, did sensei say something stupid? I only mentioned it because I have the keys..."

"No, it's a good idea, actually" Saya said, smiling at Shizuka along with Saeko and Rei; Shizuka gave a sigh of releaf as Saya's smile formed a smirk, already forming a plan. "Alright, that's what we're doing; we'll go rescue Komuro, then we'll escape to the other side of the river! Let's get ready!"

At that moment, Kouta came down with the first load of things from the bedroom, including a duffle bag of ammo and other gun accesories, the AR-10 across his back and the Ithaca in his hand. There weren't many words passed between the group as Kouta dropped off the bag and the shotgun before heading back upstairs, having already heard the plan from the doorway of the house on his way out.

Outside, Shizuka and Rei looked down at the pile of things that would unboubtly grow, and Shizuka gulped.

"We sure gathered a lot of stuff...I wonder if it will all fit?" Shizuka said nerviously looking at the humvee. "And how will we move this stuff to the truck without _them_ noticing and coming over...?"

"Do it like an R.P.G. and use stealth!" Saya wispered harshly at the two, having overheard Shizuka's questioning and looked over at Saeko, who was unlocking the gate and opened it, the four girls quickly moving out.

Shizuka quickly unlocked the humvee and unlocked the back so Rei and Saya could start loading things while Saeko stood guard. As Saya and Rei loaded the back, Shizuka familarized herself with the humvee's councle, checking everything she was familar with and guessing on the rest.

Upstairs, Kouta was finishing packing a few last things from the locker as Kaede kept look out, watching Takashi down the street and as the crowd around the house grew bigger and bigger. Kouta strapped a few belts of ammo across his chest before looking out to Kaede.

"How are thing's looking?" Kouta asked as he hoisted a few bags onto his back and picked up the cross bow; he was originaly going to leave it, but Kaede convinced him otherwise.

"Not so good...Takashi's completly surrounded. I have no idead how he's...oh, that smart bastard..." Kaede chuckled as he watched Takashi climb onto the walls seperating houses with the little girl on his back, and what seemed to be a dog in his coat; confident Takashi didn't need him anymore, Kaede slung the M1 across his back, picking up the spent clips to be used for later and entered the room. "He'll be fine; so what's the plan?"

"After we get the luggage in and rescue Takashi and the girl, we'll make our escape across the river. We'll be able to get through _them _with the humvee, but..." Kouta said, walking over the the balcony to see for himself what Kaede was talking about while the other teen placed a belt of shotgun sheels across his body; with a look though the binoculars, Kouta grinned. "Ah, of course. He's a genius as well, eh?"

"Seems like it, huh?" Kaede replied with a chuckle, sliding his katana in his belt and picking up the last few bags and his own shotgun. "Ready to get going?"

"Yeah" Kouta said with a nod as he followed Kaede out of the room, taking one last look to make sure they weren't missing anything.

Out with the humvee, Saya carefull closed the back of the truck as quitely as possible after finishing loading everything into the truck, motioning Rei who had one last bag into the truck.

"Were's Hirano and Himoura?" Saya said, looking around and noticing it was only the girls outside at the moment.

"Aren't they still on the second floor?" Rei replied, looking up to the balcony to see it empty.

"Jeez, I don't know if their amazing or just a pair of dumbasses..." Saya muttered; just then, Kouta and Kaede stepped out of the gate, heavil ladden with the reamaining guns, Kouta looking like a sweaty mess and Kaede slightly panting.

With a pat of his shoulder, Kaede got Kouta to continue to the humvee, both with a smile on their faces; they didn't notice the odd stairs the group was giving them.

"Uhmm...is something wrong?" Kouta asked, the first to notice the stares.

"You two look like you're having fun..." Saya said sarcastically, looking at the two; Kaede grinned back and Kouta returned a light smile.

"This is the rest of it, in anycase~" Kaede chimed in as he carefully unloaded a few bags and unstrapped the M1 from his body, handing it to Rei for her to place it in the truck, followed by his katana and the bag, which he put into the humvee himself; Kouta followed suit, storing the crossbow, the bag, and the ammunition belts in the back of the humvee.

With all the luggage loaded, the girls piled int the humvee, followed shortly by Kouta and Kaede, armed with their Remington 870 and AR-10 respectivly. Once inside, Kaede quickly opened the turrent port and hoisted himself onto the roof, sitting with his legs hooked on in the opening with his shotgun in hand, followed shortly by Saeko who likewise pulled herself on the roof, but instead stood as Shizuka started up the humvee and pulled out, Saeko kneeling momentarily to keep her balance; Shizuka quickly speed down the street, driving the military vehical with no expreiance before hand the best she could, which wasn't too bad, considering the circomstances.

The headlights of the humvee soon illumiated Takashi walking along the wall with the girl on his back and the crowd of undead just below them, completly oblivious to them.

"W-wow, there's so many..." Shizuka gasped as she looked at the fast approching horde, seeing Takashi on the wall.

"It doesn't matter now; charge!" Saya yelled, leaning over to Shizuka's shoulder and pointing forward; on the roof, Saeko who had been stanting had no choice but to kneel down again, this time practically right in Kaede's face.

Needless to say, there was a trickle of blood coming from Kaede's nostrols as he held on as well as the humvee went right through the undead, nearing Takashi and the little girl.

"They...really know how to make an enterance..." Takashi couldn't help but comment as he watched the fast approaching humvee.

"Friends of yours, Onii-chan?" the girl on his back asked as she watched in suprise as well.

"Yeah, very important friends!" Takashi said with a grin as he began walking along the wall again towards the end were he humvee came to a skidding halt, waiting for Takashi.

As he neared however, _they _began recovering, pulling themselves to _their _feet and hobbling towards the humvee. Kaede saw this and raised her shotgun to his shoulder, taking aim; there was already a shell loaded, so all he had to do was aim and fire and that's exactly what he did. The approaching undead were stopped by the shotgun's spread,bowing away bit of head and chests.

"We still have to get to the other side of the river." Saeko said, tucking her hair behind her ear as she looked at Takashi with a smile. "You coming?"

"Of course!" Takashi yelled, Kaede firing another shell into the crowd and making an opening for Takashi, who lept from the wall and onto the humvee.

'And so, we escaped that second night...of course, everyday afterwards was a never-ending nightmare; even after crossing the river, we still had to find our families..."

**Chapter 4, end**

**Author's note: This chapter came out alittle shorter than expected; I was thinking of combining this chapter and the next into one, but that may be just alittle too long, so I desided just to cut this one alittle short; I'll make up for it in the next one, hopefully.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's notes: Thanks to those who have read this story, and a big thanks to those who have reviewed it; your reviews are very encouraging, so thanks you two...yeah, only two people. I', not asking for a bunch of reviews or anything, but it would be nice to see how many people are reading this and liking it...and since there's only two people, I guess it's okay to answer their questions now, instead of making them wait, neh?**

**In response to Dante's Desciple:**I wanna give you a bit of a special thanks for giving me my first review, so...yeah. Thanks. As for your question about Kaede, in the RPG sense, he would be a freelancer, capable with everything and can provide support for everyone without really specializing in anything specific; make sense? And in a more literal take on the question, Kaede can indeed use a sword, but he's no were near as skilled as Saeko, yet he really excels with firearms and other related things, more so than Kouta is, while he still has his own type of smarts; I guess that explains more why I'd describe him as a freelancer, neh?

**In responce to Dante-SonofSparda-EX21: 1)**Thanks for the suggestion, I myself have noticed the first chapter being a bit...long, and I apologise for that; it should be the only long chapter like that for awhile, if not for the whole story, but I just don't know were to separate it at without making two really short chapters. **2)**Thanks for that information; I was worried it would be boring to those really familiar to the series, and sorry about the grammer problems. I can assure you they were all accidental. As for the questions on the pairs, I do intend to have Takashi and Saeko's relationship develop just as I'll have Kaede's and Rei's, and even Kouta and Saya's as well, even if that'll be a bit more of a challenge; I'll also be adding another two or so pairings later with some other OC's I'll be introducing later. **3) **I'm glad I gave you the idea, and thanks again for letting me know that I'm doing good with my character in the HOTD series. Oh, and I'll defiantly check out your story ASAP.

**Chapter 5: The DEAD Way Home**

The night had been rough for the group, escaping the apartment and having to rescue Takashi from the middle of a horde of _them _before making their way though the city; it took the rest of the night to get to a second of the river far from any of the city's bridges, and by day break they had found one. Everyone except Kouta and the little girl they had saved, Alice, was inside the humvee, sleeping save for Shizuka, who was driving; Saya sat in the front seat sleeping and Takashi, Saeko, Rei and Kaede(in that order) crowded in the back, fast asleep with Saeko laying in Takashi's lap and Rei resting against Kaede. Takashi was now wearing a pair of jeans, the leg cuffs rolled up a bit and Kaede was now in a pair of cargo shorts and his school shirt, the sleeves rolled up to a little below his elbows.

Saya was the first to wake, the first thing she heard was the sound of water splashing against the sides of the humvee as they crossed the river; as Saya rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she also heard the sound of Alice singing on the roof with Kouta, were they were on look out; beside them was a pole with most of Takashi's school uniform and a pair of panties that had been soaked the night before with Alice's pee, and event Takashi still refused to explain himself.

Saya shifted, looking at Shizuka for a moment, the nurse smiling at her, before getting up and slipping out through the turrent port, now being able to hear what Alice was singing.

"...gently down the stream! Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream~! La, la, la, la, gently down the stream!~" the little girl chanted happily, sitting on Kouta's lap. "I can sing in English too."

"That's awsome, let me hear it!" Kouta laughing softly with the girl, not even noticing that Saya had popped her head from the port and snattched the binoculars from him and began checking out the shore line.

"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream! Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream~!" Alice sung in English, Kouta smiling and even Saya impressed at how well the little girl's English and Japanese were, wondering which one as her native tongue.

"All right, let's make it a duet this time!" Kouta said, smiling at Alice, who smiled back and nodded with a giggle; Kouta started off, with his own version of the song, overall drowning Alice's original with his own. "Shoot, shoot, shoot your gun, kill them all now! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Life is but a dream!"

"You're so good, Kouta-chan!" Alice giggled as they finished their 'duet,' Saya having enough of the two by now.

"Hey lardo, you shouldn't teach those kinds of songs to little kinds!" Saya yelled, making her presance known to Kouta by slamming her arm against the humvee's roof, who practically jumped out of his skin, Alice looking over at Saya questioningly.

The slam, as well as Shizuka announcing that they were near the shore, woke Rei up first who smiled softly after seeing that she had slept against Kaede, and that he was asleep still as well, like Takashi and Saeko; Rei's eyes fell on them two next, and frowned, not with jealously, but with confusion. Rei thought she'd feel jealous at such a sight, but she felt...okay with it, especially since it was Saeko, knowing deep down she had what it took to make Saeko happy; deep in her subconscious, Rei came to the understanding that she was fine with Takashi's choices, as long as he was happy.

Rei's thoughts were interrupted as the humvee came onto dry land, throwing them around a bit. Once grounded, Kouta slid to the hood of the humvee, then onto the ground and cautiously looked around with the AR-10 in his hands, not a soul in sight, dead or living.

"There's nobody here..." Sayacommented, looking both ways as well and seeing nothing but the shores.

Back inside the humvee, Kaede, who had been woken by the humvee hitting solid ground again, rubbed his hand over his eyes before yawning and pushing his hair back out of his face, most of his shoulder length black hair having found freedom from his ponytail; quite the annoyance to Kaede, but he'd never cut his hair willingly again out of his own choice...

After seeing Kaede awake, Rei moved right to Takashi, pulling on his cheek and waking him right up.

"H-hey, what do you-" Takashi started, pausing after seeing the mischievous look on Rei's face. "H-huh...?"

"You're quite popular, aren't you?" Rei said with a small grin, Takashi realizing there was an unfamiliar warms on weight on his lap, and looked down; Saeko was dozing still on his lap, unknowingly drooling on Takashi's shirt and her hair a disheveled mess.

Almost as if sensing she had become the topic of a discussion, Saeko woke softly and sat up, rubbing the drool from her chin; a look of realization dawned on her face and she blushed softly, quickening her task and looking away, embarrassed by being seen by everyone at one of her most vulnerable of times.

Rei was about to make a sly comment until there was a knock on the car door, the three looking over to see Kouta motioning them out while Saeko fixed her hair. Takashi and Kaede nodded and Takashi opened the door, letting them out of the back, Saeko refusing to come out just yet. On his way out, Kaede grabbed both shotguns and stretch out, yawning before looking around.

"It's so empty it's almost more scarier than a beach filled with _them..."_Kaede muttered as he turned to see that Kouta had climbed back onto the humvee and was helping Alice down along with Takashi, who had pulled on his fingerless gloves again.

Kaede watched with mild interest as Kouta lifted Alice and passed her down to Takashi, only for her to squirm, mentioning something about her panties; Kaede sighed as he rested his Remington against his shoulder and looked up at their 'flag' consisting of Takashi's pants, gakuran, and Alice's panties.

Kaede sighed and watched as they were scolded by Rei who then said that they were going to get dress.

"And you had better not peak; that goes for you too, Kaede!" Rei yelled, addressing Kaede suddenly.

Kaede simply shrugged, and Kouta and Takashi joined him at the front of the humvee, along with the small white dog that Takashi had brought along with him; he instantly began barking at Kaede when he yawned again, and Takashi chuckled at him.

"You're energetic as usual I see, Zeke..." Takashi said, petting the dog on the head as Kouta and Kaede exchanged looks before Kaede addressed Takashi.

"Hey, Takashi, come here" Keade said, waiting for Takashi to approach before holding out the Ithaca to him; Takashi shook his head and was about to say he didn't know how to us it, but Kaede shook his head and pushed it into Takashi's arms. "I'll teach you; it's a shot gun, so you only have to aim for the general direction of _their _heads, and it has a scope, so aiming will be much easier."

"Listen, I've never used a gun before, besides the revolver; I don't know how to use something like this." Takashi said as he looked down at the shotgun in his hands; it felt alien to him, none the less, something told him he could get use to it. "I'd...be much better off with a bat or something..."

"No; things'll only get worse here on out; plus we have more guns than we have people to use them" Kouta cut in, having already discussed this with Kaede last night while the two gun experts were on the roof of the humvee. "Besides, you have two people who do know how to use them; just ask, and we can give you a little re-education on the functions."

Taking this as a cue from Kouta, Kaede held his own shotgun up and pulled the pump back, making sure to catch the chambered shell before he lost it.

"Doing that ejects the chambered shell and gets another ready to fire; do it after each shot you fire. Since you've never fired a gun before, make sure to keep the butt tight against your shoulder..." Kaede demonstrated it with his shotgun, and motioned for Takashi to do the same to get a feel for it. "...and use it at relatively close range for the best effect. You only have to aim for the general area of the head because of the shell's ability to spread."

"So...what do I do when I run out of ammo?" Takashi asked, already feeling a bit more comfortable with the gun, Kaede's explanation and examples helping out alot.

"Open the gate like this, and slide the shell in like that." Kaede spoke as he went though the actions slowly, pulling the slide back and sliding the shell he had earlier ejected back into the magazine. "Your gun only holds four shells, so a total of five when one's chambered. Be careful, because it can only hold four though, okay?"

Takashi nodded, looking down at the shotgun again with a frown; he may now know how to use it, but it still didn't feel quite as natural as Kaede and Kouta made it look.

"Oh, and, when worse comes to worst, you can use it like a club" Kaede added, much to Kouta's disapproval, which Kaede noticed. "Er, well, just make sure you grab a few extra shells, okay...?"

Again, Takashi halfheartedly nodded, holding the shotgunin both hands as he started walking towards the embankment, leaving Kouta and Kaede at the humvee.

"Onii-chan!" Alice's voice suddenly rang out, stopping Takashi and making him turn around, expecting to see just Alice, but he was wrong, his jaw nearly dropping.

"Eh...Takashi, what's the...?" Kouta started asking, following Takashi's gaze, his mouth opening in delight; Kaede turned as well, following the other two's gaze and likewise was stunned.

The five girls had finished dressing and were walking towards the boys, Rei, Saya and Saeko walking with Rei in front, and Alice and Shizuka behind them, however, Takashi, Kouta nor Kaede really noticed the two.

Rei was in her school uniform, but had added several harnessed to her body, one that outlined her breasts and made them seem just a bit bigger attached to the M1 and one worn diagonally on her hips, also emphasising her curves there; she also had put on a pair of white fingerless gloves, and a pair of elbow and knee pads with her regular tennis shoes. Kaede's eyes wandered from all three girls, but stopped on Rei, watching her approach with a light grin.

As for Saeko, she wore the school top with a purple bow added, but had a short black skirt that fit around her legs wonderfully, and would have been constricting if not for the slit up the right leg than ran high enough to show the bows were her panties were tied together on the sides; she was also wearing a pair of black nylon thigh-highs with boots and a garter strap seen thanks to the skirt's slit. In her hand was her bokken, and there was a light smile on her face when she noticed Takashi staring at her the longest.

And finally Saya was wearing a coat, partially buttoned up and her breasts popping out, constricted by a short, black tank-top that may as well be considered a sports bra, and a short green skirt with a pair of high-top shoes, half way tied up. Unlike Saeko, Saya frown when she noticed it was Kouta who looked at her the longest, giving him a glare that made him look away quickly.

"You guys got a problem or something?" Rei asked with a sly smirk, making the three look away from their 'targets' with nervous looks.

"Eh, no...do you even know how to shook that thing?" Takashi asked, looking back at Rei, attempting to change the subject off of them and motioned to the rifle in Rei's hands.

"Mmm, not yet. I'm sure Kaede or Hirano-kun can show me..." Rei said, looking from Kaede to Kouta, who seemed to jump at the attention.

"I know, I know, I know! The army puts bayonets on those guns, and we just happen to have a bayonet with us!" Kouta said, waving his hand around like a little kid before actually going and retrieving the bayonet; while he was gone, Kaede gave Rei a quick lesson on how to shoot, telling her only to do so if absolutely necessary until she was able to practice.

Kouta returned from searching the back of the truck with the bayonet in hand; Rei swung the gun barrel to him so he could put it on for her, but only caused Kouta to jump out of the way, several giggles coming from Rei, Shizuka and Alice, and even Saeko. Rei looked down at the bayonet curiously for awhile, the gun and the knife completely unfamiliar to her.

'And so, our battle preparations were complete...for the time being...' Takashi thought to himself as he watched Shizuka and Alice back into the humvee after mentioning they should move out, the rest of them staying out for now.

With a look at the other two, Takashi nodded and motioned to the slope leading up to the street; the three teens made their way up until they were just at the top, hidden from view from the street and the street likewise out of their view from their position on the slope. Kaede and Kouta gave each other a nod before climbing up the last bit, looking both ways with their guns raised.

"Clear!" Kouta called out first, shortly followed by Kaede saying the same thing; Takashi watched, the sight almost seeming like a sort of game if he didn't know what they were looking out for.

Takashi stepped up into the street as well, the Ithaca held loosely in his hand as he looked both ways as well; the streets were indeed completely clear, not that he doubted Kouta or Kaede, it was just odd, the streets on the other side of the river having been full of the undead. From his spot, Takashi turned and waved down at Rei, motioning towards himself and the humvee; it felt odd for Takashi to be using his hands so much, but it had been decided the night before that they would keep the chatter to a minimum while outside as to not attract any of _them._Takashi hadn't really gotten the hang of it yet, but there wasn't away to tell Shizuka it was okay to come up without yelling down to them.

"It's clear, Shizuka-sensei" Rei said, having been looking out for the signal from Takashi, holding back a giggle at how he looked motioning to them.

"Alright, here it goes!" Shizuka said as she started up the humvee, reaving the engine once before speeding straight for the slope; on the street, Takashi quickly moved out of the way towards Kaede, both he and Kouta moving back to avoid the humvee.

As the armoured vehicle hit the slope, the tires and momentum easily pulled the truck up the slight incline, and it got several meters of air when it hit the end of the incline, Kouta needlessly jumping out of the way as the truck whizzed past, hitting the ground hard and skidding to a stop.

"H-how can she make the humvee move like that..." Kouta shivered in fear, still huddled on the ground as he watched the humvee come to a stop, Shizuka in the driver's seat looking proud of herself for getting the humvee up and over the slope.

The humvee was shortly followed by Rei, Saya and Saeko while Kouta regained his composure; once on the street, Saya took a better look around with the binoculars, seeing a car further up the stree. The window was broken, and there was blood around the broken glass.

"It hardly looks like they blocked the river off at all..." Saya muttered as she looked around, seeing more signs of _them,_ but none of the actual walking dead around.

"From what they said on the news, the whole world's like this, right?" Saeko said as she likewise observed the area with her own eyes, not being able to see too far. "So it's only natural _they_ would be on this side of the river too..."

"But the police'll still be around, right?" Rei chimed in; Saya frowned, knowing Rei was thinking about her father and doubting, deep down, that he was still alive at the moment.

"Yeah, Japan's police forces are very dedicated." Saya said with a forced smile, Rei nodding in agreement; Saya decided to give Rei a bit of hope instead of crushing it then and there, because she didn't know for sure if her father was dead, even if the odds were against him...

"Um, so what should we do now...?" Shizuka asked from the window of the humvee, leaning out at the high school students all gathered around, Kouta having gotten over the whole 'jumping humvee' incident with a grin from Kaede and a 'That was fucking cool either way' from him.

There was a few moments of thought were the group ultimately all looked to Takashi, who looked back a bit dumbfounded before putting his mind to work.

"Uh...oh, Takagi!" Takashi suddenly said, surprising the pink haired girl. "Your house is in 2-choome at Higashi Hill, isn't it?"

"That's right..." Saya replied, slowly realizing what Takashi was going for.

"Then your place is closest, and that's our first stop!" Takashi said; they left the decision up to him, and he made one, the group nodding, seeing the basic sense in Takashi's decision, which surprised Takashi, who had pretty much been declared the leader already.

"I don't have much hope, but..." Saya said with a small smile, and Takashi nodded, smiling.

"Let's get going then!"

And with that, they all piled into the humvee, Zeke hopping in just as they closed the door, and they were off down the street towards the hill in the distance.

With the humvee so crowded, Kaede eventually opted to sit on the roof than crowing up the humve even more, taking both his shotgun and his katana with him. From there, he was able to keep an eye out, even if the roads were empty; he eventually shifted so he was sitting on the back of the humvee with his shotgun resting against his shoulder, watching the roads they passed. Eventually, Rei came out to join him, Kaede helping her sit of the roof of the moving vehicle.

"Wow...I'd never be able to do something like this if everything was normal..." Rei said as the wind blew through her hair, speaking before she thought and fell silent for a moment, Kaede frowning slightly; things were indeed different now, even if only a few days had passed, and they were already starting to get use to the 'new world,' Kaede thinking about this during the silence, which didn't last long, thanks to Rei. "Have you noticed, Kaede?"

"Notice what?" Kaede asked, his mind starting to come back to the present situation and looked over at Rei to see her smiling.

"We haven't come across any of _them _sence last night." Rei said with a smile as Kaede nodded, knowing it subconsciously but never really thinking about it. "It's a nice change, huh?"

"Wonder why though..." Kaede thought out loud, looking up at the sky as Rei leaned her head on his shoulder; for a few moments, there was smoke in the air from a house fire probably long burnt out by now until they passed it by, the blue sky only obstructed by a cloud or two, Kaede frowning as he came to another realization.

'Yesterday, people were flying around like crazy, but now the skies are completely empty...' Kaede thought, not wanting to bother Rei with the information as she took his silence as an invitation and made herself comfortable against him.

Their peace lasted for awhile but was soon interrupted by a thud at the front of the humvee and the truck rocking slightly as it ran one of _them _over, completely whipping away what Rei had just said; neither of them minded, until the thuds became more and more frequent and Kaede saw more and more of the undead as they passed. Kaede soon turned and growled lightly, the streets littered with the undead and only seemed to get thicker down the road; as the terrain became rougher, Kaede placed his hand on Rei's shoulder. She seemed to understand and followed his guidance, laying against the roof of the humvee facing forward, holding on tightly with Kaede's arm around her as the truck encountered more and more undead, threatening to throw the two off if they weren't careful.

"Were did _they _all come from?" they heard Saya yell from inside the humvee. "Gah! Here too! Make a left turn here! Here!"

The humvee suddenly made a sharp left turn, nearly turning Rei and Kaede over and tossing them off, Kaede straining to keep them both on the humvee as they straightened out.

"H-hey! We're up here, you know!" Kaede yelled down into the turret port as Rei saw something gleaming across the road in the distance, Kaede not seeing it because his head turned towards the opening. "Be a little more considerate, will you!"

"S-sorry, but the closer we get to Takagi's house, the more there seem to be..." Kouta replied from the port, looking up at Kaede with an apologetic smile as Rei finally figured out what the gleam in the road was.

"No, no, no..." Rei started shaking her head in horror, drawing Kaede's attention back to her. "S-stop! Stop the car now! There's wires stretched across the road!"

As Kaede looked up, he noticed them too, and also yelled for the car to stop; Shizuka quickly turned the wheel, skidding to the wires and pinning several of _them _between the car and wires; the car's momentum quickly won, and Kouta covered Alice's eyes inside the humvee, the windows splattered with blood and gore as _they_ were ripped apart from the wires. The car kept skidding however, the wires guiding it along their length, the tires not stopping thanks to the blood and guts provided by the undead.

"We're sliding too much!" Shizuka yelled, trying to get control of the car again to no avail, having no idea on what to do. "Why won't it stop!"

"All the people...n-no, all of _their _guts are making us slide!" Saya yelled; indeed, the tires were covered in gore, leaving a long, red skid-mark along the ground, Kouta nearly making a skid-mark of his own as he noticed them quickly approaching the wall.

"S-sensei! The tires are locked!" Kouta finally yelled, gathering his wits. "Let go of the brakes and hit the gas just a little bit!"

"W-what?" Shizuka turned slightly to Kouta, his advice sounding ridiculous, but what else could she do but trust him? "O-okay...!"

Following Kouta's direction, Shizuka relieved the pressure she had been putting on the breaks and switched her foot to the gas, giving it a light push; the humvee lurched closer to the wall, and Shizuka panicked, quickly slamming on the breaks again.

Up top, Rei and Kaede were holding on tightly through the ride of their life, Rei shutting her eyes tightly as the wall neared, the humvee suddenly lurching to a stop, raising off it's back wheels a meter or two, sending Rei and Kaede forward. Rei slipped from Kaede's grasp, and continued forward, Kaede reaching desperately for her as she flipped once through the air, and hit her back hard on the humvee's hood before bouncing off, and hitting the ground hard, the wind knocked right out of her lungs; Kaede barely even registered the flash of her panties before he jumped down as well to protect Rei from the approaching undead.

Shizuka watched in horror as Rei fell from the roof, hitting the hood hard then landing on the ground, several undead quickly noticing her and limped towards her wheezing form. Rei was unable to get up, so Kaede jumped to the hood, then down in front of Rei with little hesitation, raising his shotgun that he had somehow been able to keep hold of this entire time; without hesitation, he aimed and fired at one of _them, it's _head exploding in a shower of gore before _it's _body fell in a heap on the ground. Kaede then pulled back the slide and, before the spent shell hit the ground, dropped another one of _them_.

"Damnit! I'm going out to help them! Kouta...!" Takashi growled through clenched teeth, having watched from the back the entire time, helplessly; he grabbed the Ithaca and went for the door, looking back at Kouta to see him nod, his AR-10 ready, and stood, popping out of the turret port as Takashi lept out of the humvee, slamming the door behind him and landing, taking up a position in front of the humvee, pressing the shotgun to his shoulder. "Pull the slide, aim, and shoot!"

As Takashi recited to words, he cocked the Ithaca, looking through the scope, aiming around one of _their _chests, and fired; the recoil knocked him back a few steps before he caught himself, looking up to see he had barely hit his target, blowing away a small only chunk of _it's _head, but just enough to kill _it. _

"What the hell? I aimed at _it's_head, but it barely did anything!" Takashi growled as he slid the pump back, ejecting the shell and the gun automatically pulled a new shell into the chamber.

"This is your first time shooting, so you basically suck!" Kouta yelled from atop the humvee, firing off a few well aimed shots, dropping several of the walking dead while the sounds of Kaede's shotgun died out, followed by a curse and some fumbling as he reloaded his shotgun. "The recoil will make the barrel aim a little higher than were you pointed it; shoulder the gun and lean into it! And _aim for the chest!"_

Kouta hissed the last part as he fired several more shots, the 7.62mm NATO rounds ripping through head after head; as for Takashi, he shouldered the rifle again, muttering the directions over and over again as he took aim, 'leaning' he best he could into the stalk. It took him a second to aim right, and he fired, two of _them _collapsing after having the sides of _their _heads blown off.

"That's more like it!" Takashi yelled triumphantly as he cocked the shotgun and lined another shot up and firing, the blast echoed by Kaede's gun.

The three continued firing round after round into the crowd, however, it was endless, the few they killed being replaced by three or four more of the undead. That is, until Takashi's gun clicked empty.

"D-damn, outta bullets..." Takashi growled, reaching into his pocket were he had a few extra shells; as he pulled out a few, his hand pulled out the rest and they spilt onto the ground. "F-fucking hell!"

Takashi tried gathering the dropped shells, however one of them stepped closer, preventing him from grabbing them; he stumbled back, falling on his rear as _it _approached him. Before either Kaede or Kouta could line up a shot on it, Saeko was out of the humvee, slamming the door shut after her as she sped towards Takashi, slamming the handle of her bokken into _it's _chin, knocking _it _back.

"Are you alright, Komuro-kun?" Saeko asked over her shoulder as she switched her grip around on her wooden sword, not exactly hung up on Takashi's answer as she swung her bokken, easily crushing one of _their _skulls. "I'll help you guys out here."

"No! There's too many of _them _for you to use only a wooden sword!" Takashi yelled back as he started to his feet.

"I realize that..." Saeko said with a soft smile over her shoulder before she turned, swinging her sword expertly, blood splattering the ground and her clothes as Saeko dispatchedone undead body after another; Takashi went for the shells he had dropped again, only for one of _them _to step on them, preventing Takashi from reloading.

"Hey, Takashi!" Kaede yelled; Takashi looked over to him to see him tossing his Remington to him, catching it with a bit of suprise. "It's fully loaded and it has twice as many shells as the Ithaca; just use it the same way, just don't drop the damn bullets!"

Kaede gave Takashi a light grin and nodded forward slightly as he drew his katana, Rei struggling to get up behind him, making Takashi turn to his own situation. Quickly pulling himself to his feet, Takashi raised the shotgun to his shoulder and shot at several undead behind Saeko, allowing her to continue swinging her bokken without worry for the time being.

For the third time so far, Kouta's AR-10 clicked dry; he pulled the magazine free and dropped it onto the humvee's roof, his hand quickly going for the pocket in his vest he kept three extra clips. Realization slowly dawned on Kouta as he felt at the empty pocket, reaching in to find nothing.

"Out of magazines...!" he growled, looking away from his pocket to see the situation around them worsening by the second as Kaede kept to Rei, who couldn't get up due to her injured back, cutting down any of _them _that drew near and Takashi and Saeko trying to get close to them to help out, but to no avail; there were just too many of _them; _seeing his help needed and fast, Kouta grabbed the empty clip, and held it down the port hole. "Someone hand me something that looks like this! Quickly!"

Inside the humvee, Shizuka and Saya were watching from the front seats, Shizuka on the verge of a break down and Saya feeling utterly useless; in the back, Alice was huddled in the corner, tears threatening to fall but she held them back, trying to block out the sounds outside, Zeke standing near a window barking out only adding to the chaotic whirlwind of noises. As Kouta yelled back into the humvee again, Alice was brought back, hearing what Kouta wanted after he repeated himself, likewise snapping Shizuka and Saya out of the nightmarish-like state they were in.

The two women turned to head for the back to see Alice was already shifting through the duffel gags of things, even Zeke looking like he was trying to help as he dug at a bag; it finally fell over, and several magazines spilled onto the humvee floor. Alice quickly grabbed one in each hand, holding them tightly, and raised them up to Kouta's hand waving th empty magazine around.

"Here, Kouta-chan!" Alice called as she held up the magazines with a helpful smile, the tears forgotten; the sight seemed to trouble Kouta, as if he just remembered Alice being there with them, it being one hell of a reality check.

"Thanks, Alice-chan" Koutareplied, forcing a smile as he took bothmagazines, easily holding them both in his hands; he quickly slapped one into the AR-10's receiver and pulled back the action, loading a round as he slipped the other magazine into a pocket. "Time to kick some ass!"

"Shizuka-sensei, try starting the humvee again!" Saya yelled, Alice's need to help bringing her to her own senses and she began heading for the same door Takashi and Sako had exited.

"I-it's no use! The engine's stalled and won't start?" Shizuka replied in a panicked tone as she watched Saya move through the humvee. "T-Takagi-san, where are you going!"

"I'm gonna pick up Komuro's gun and use it myself!" Saya grunted as she squeezed through the two seats into the back and moved towards the door, ignoring Shizuka's protests of it being too dangerous. "I know already!"

Saya waited for a moment, timing herself before throwing open the door and leaping to the fallen Ithaca, picking it up as well as a handful of shells which Takashi had dropped earlier.

"Takagi! Do you know how to use that? Load the shells in from the bottom and-!" Kouta started yelling, seeing Saya pick up the shotgun; however, Saya interrupted him before he finished, loading the shells on her own.

"Of course I do! I'm a genius, of course!" Saya yelled back, looking over her shoulder at him smugly, unaware of one of the undead approaching her; Kaede and Rei seeing this and called out to her, yelling 'Takagi' in unison. "Call me by my first name from now on!"

Saya took their warning the wrong way, the walking corpse limping closer; Saya was saved by Saeko, however, who bashed her bokken across _it's _face, unintentionally splashing Saya in gore and an unusually large amount of spit, soaking Saya's clothes and hair; this only seemed infuriate Saya further.

"I'm not shy. I'm not timid. I'm not a coward!" Saya yelled, cocking the shotgun and firing, two of _them _dropping for good and another falling over with part of _it's _shoulder missing." How could I just die! What kind of person would just let themselves just die without doing anything! My house...my house is just a little further away!"

The struggle was once again on, the group giving it all they had; however, _their _sheer numbers over whelmed them, Saya out of ammo and Takashi close behind; Kaede and Saeko exhausted, both bloodied and covered with bit of gore from cutting or smashing _them _up. At some point, Kouta tried convincing Alice to get over the wires and get away, but Alice knew what was going on, the situation all to familiar, and outright refused. With the condition of the group, Takashi knew they wouldn't last long at all and it would be only a matter of time before they were completely overwhelmed; as Saya flipped the shotgun, ready to use it as a bat, Takashi made his decision, helped along with Alice's outburst of her wanting to stay with them, no matter what. He stepped up behind Saya, grabbing the shotgun in mid-swing as she charged, stopping her completely.

"Let the men put on the show, Takagi..."Takashi said, letting go of the Ithaca and holding the Remington in a similar fashion as he walked out towards the crowd of undead.

"K-Komuro?" Saya gasped, realizing what he was planning to do; so did Saeko, because she quickly rushed towards him as he charged into the crowd. "N-no...!"

"I'm coming with you, Komuro-kun!" Saeko yelled as she followed after Takashi, beating open a pathway along with him, the two making sure to make as much noise as possible; Rei was about to yell to them, wanting to tell Takashi he was crazy and for him to get his ass back, but Kaede stopped her.

"We'll meet up later, you got it, Takashi!" Kaede yelled before they were too far, understanding what was going through Takashi'shead, since he had been thinking the same thing. "I expect to see you both back at Takagi's house!"

The only reply that he got was a thumbs up from Takashi as he and Saeko disappeared into the crowd of undead; none the less, only half of the crowd or so following them, and the other half still advancing on the remainder of the group, Kaede and Kouta being the only two to protect them now, with Saya having the will to fight, but not exactly the strength anymore.

Further down the street, Saeko and Takashi quickly ran up the stairs, pleased to find that _they _couldn't navigate stairs too well; at the top, they were able to see the group, still surrounded by a formidable amount of _them_.

"Shit!" Takashi yelled, slamming the shotgun stalk against the railings in an attempt to attract more away from the group. "Hey, you fuckers, over here! Get your decaying asses over here and eat me!"

Takashi kept yelling at the top of his lungs, no longer watching the group; he eventually felt Saeko's hand on his shoulder, and he feared for the worst, looking back towards the humvee half expecting to see it overrun with _them_. Instead, he saw what he described a a miracle; an unknown force of what looked like fire fighters blowing _them _away with high pressured water cannons, allowing the group to evacuate to the other side, Kaede supporting Rei over to the other side of the wires.

"Oh thank god..." Takashi muttered, heaving a sigh of relief as he watched the group be taken to safety; he then turned to Saekoand gave a her a light smile. "Now, we have a promise to keep; we can't go this way, so we'll have to go around and find another way there..."

From their new position on the other side of the wires, Kaede and Kota watched as Takashi and Saeko turned, disappearing from the stair landing. Kaede's attention was drawn back to them as one of the firefighters offered to take Rei, but he refused, wanting to be the one helping her to the vehicles the firefighters had come in.

"We'll come back for the truck later" one of the firefighters said, apparently the leader of them; the person's face was hidden behind the helmet and face protector, but they could tell she was female, from her voice and what the firefighter's uniform showed of her body, and her voice a little more than just a bit familiar to Saya. "I'm happy to see you alive, Saya..."

The group watched curiously after this statement as the woman lifted her helmet, long light purple hair hair falling around a beautiful, mature face, stunning Kouta and Kaede for a moment.

"Mama!" Saya yelled, jumping into her mother's arms, hugging her tightly around the neck as she half sobbed, half laughed in her mother's neck

'We're safe, for now...' Kaede thought, looking back to were Takashi and Saeko had been. '...now all that's left is to wait for you two to keep your promise...'

**Chapter 5, end**

**Author's Ending Notes: There may be alot of typos in this chapter; I went through hell putting it through spell check on this site for some reason. It kept pushing words together, so I had to re-read it several times before I just said screw it and saved it; I apologies for them though.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes: On this chapter, I'm gonna focus on the rest of the group; indeed, I could have switched over to Saeko and Takashi and switched the scene with them up a bit, but I've decided to leave it as it happened in the anime; the only real difference will be their...uh, bonding, I guess...and the fact that Takashi has the Remington M870, not the Ithaca 37. In the anime, Takashi halfheartedly admits he only accepted Saeko to further his own survival; in this case, that factor only pushes him to make the decision faster, because he was falling for Saeko anyways, he was just confused over his feeling for Rei. Uh, before I get too far into this, I'm gonna start the chapter; leave a question in a review if you need to, and also review just for the hell of it, 'kay?**

**Chapter 6: The DEAD's House Rules**

For the rest of the day, the group were on their toes, even after having been brought back to the Takagi manor; there, along with many of the survivors from the surrounding area, they were offered food, shelter, and security inside the walls of the manor. None the less, everyone was waiting for Takashi and Saeko to get to the manor themselves. However, night came, and Kaede convinced Kouta to come down from look out, stating that Takashi would be smart enough not to travel at night like this; his assumption was right on the mark, since Takashi and Saeko had taken refuge in a shrine not too long after dark.

Kaede and Kouta began returning to the room they shared in the house; since they were friends of Saya's, the group had been allowed to stay inside the house, as apposed to sleeping in tents like the rest of the survivors taking refugee at the Takagi manor. When Kouta made a left, Kaede took a right, deciding on checking in on the girl's room. He knocked and there was a 'Come in!' from the other side of the door; Kouta was quick to follow after seeing what Kaede was doing.

"Ah, Himoura-kun, Hirano-kun" Shizuka greeted the two from the bed Rei was laying on her stomach, naked except for a towel resting across her backside; she had a look on her face that told that her pride had been hurt in someway along with her back. "I was just giving Rei a dosage of medicinal ointment to help with her back, though she squirms a bit too much; maybe you can help next time, Himoura-kun?"

"W-well...we'll see about that..." Kaede replied nerviously, feeling Rei glare daggers into his side, and chuckled nerviously, looking over at her out of the corner of his eyes.

"Was there something you two needed, or did you just come to try and peak on us girls?" Rei snapped at Kaede sarcastically, catching Kaede's glances and making him quickly avert his eyes from her body.

"O-oh, right. Nothing really, just checking up on you, basically..." Kaede muttered in response, looking up at the ceiling as he scratched his chin. "But, uh, we'll be leaving now. Kouta..."

"R-right" Kouta nodded, gulping hard as Rei's glare was turned on him, even if he hadn't given her a second glace(the first being enough to give the otaku a light nose bleed) since he entered, and turned towards the door with Kaede. "Good night, Alice-chan. Sleep tight!"

Kaede likewise bid the girls good night, and the two quickly made their escape, sighing heavily as they walked across the hall to their shared room; Kaede went straight to his bed, throwing himself onto it while Kouta sat tiredly on his, picking up the AR-10 leaning against the bedpost and going through a quick check through it before going to sleep.

"You should give the guns a through cleaning tomorrow, since we have the time now..." Kaede said, absent mindedly as he heard the AR-10 click a few times, figuring what Kouta was doing and thought he should to the same to the Ithaca; the thought drifted through his mind, but he was too tired to keep it there and actually do it. Before Kouta could complain, Kaede had rolled over and was already asleep.

Kouta sighed and shook his head at Kaede as he finished his check on the AR-10 before setting it back in it's place. He took his glasses off and slid into bed himself, falling asleep quickly as well, his dreams filled with zombies and guns and a few images of Saya from earlier, when she was using the Ithaca...

The next morning, Kouta was awoken by Alice jumping on his bed, Kouta freaking out and falling out of bed in a tangle of sheets and his body parts; the resulting crash and Alice's laughing awoke Kaede as well, who sat up and yawned to find Zeke on his bed, probably with the same task as Alice. Kaede stared at the small white dog for awhile, his mind drifting to his own dog, a three year old female Akita Inu named Yuki he had raised from a puppy.

As Zeke began barking, Kaede brushed him aside and sat on the edge of the bed, yawning again; Zeke tried retailiating, but Kaede pushed him over onto his back with a small smile, rembering how he use to play with Yuki like this and lightly grabbed at Zeke's nose, then went for his stomach, rubbing it until the dog's paws tried catching his hand, and he'd start over again. Thinking about Yuki eventually brought his mind to his mother, then to his late father; with a sigh, he gave Zeke one last belly rub before standing and walked towards the door.

"Ah, Kae-nii-chan, where are you going? Breakfast is ready, down stairs." Alice said, looking over to Kaede as he began heading for the door as Kouta finally untangled himself.

"I'm just going to the bathroom; I'll meet you two down there" Kaede replied over his shoulder as he turned down the hall and disappeared from sight.

"Let's head down then, Alice-chan" Kouta said when Kaede was out of sight, smiling at the little girl and watched as she and Zeke began leading the way down into the dinning room of the manor.

Along the way, Kouta couldn't help but to let his mouth hang open at the size of the place and the rich decorations adorning the walls and stands, ranging from old paintings to statues; he had no idea Saya came form such a rich family, though he did know her father was a extreme right-wing nationalist. None the less, he still didn't expect their house to be like this, not in the least. It seemed like Alice was leading him around for quite awhile, which was really only a few minutes, before they entered the large dinning room, completely empty save for Shizuka already sitting, and the table set already for four people with a simple Japanese breakfast waiting.

"Good morning, Hirano-kun~!" Shizuka chirped, waving at Kouta, her breasts swaying slightly making Kouta miss a step and nearly fall with his face red. "Ah, where's Himoura-kun...?"

"Toilet~" Alice chimed in as she walked around the table and sat next to Shizuka; luckily or intentionally, the plates were set up at the end of the table, two on each side, so this was easy for Alice to do.

"Miyamoto-san couldn't come down?" Kouta asked as he took a seat on the opposite side of Alice, noting there were only four plates made. "And Takagi-san's not-?"

"I told you people to call me by my first name!" Saya studdenly yelled from the doorway Kouta and Alice had come through, with Kaede in tow. "Jeez, Himoura's the one I hardly know, yet he's the first one to comply with my wishes! And I ate already, so it doesn't matter."

"You can call me by my first name to, I don't mind. You too, Shizuka-sensei" Kaede chuckled lightly, scratching the back of his head as he walked over to sit next to Kouta, Saya following suit and sitting over by Alice. "So, what about Rei...?"

"She shouldn't be up yet, so they brought her meal up to her" Shizuka replied with a smile. looking from Kaede to Saya as she sat down. "So, did everyone have a good night?"

The was a series of grumbles from the group, Kaede and Alice having started eating already; this lack of response quited Shizuka for the time being as Saya gathered her thoughts, having much to say, but wondering if she should wait for Takashi and Saeko to return, if they were or not. Being back with her parents made her feel uneasy, and she found herself doubting a lot more things, like her parents had doubted her survival...

"Well, the way I see things, Takashi and Saeko should be returning sometime today" Kaede said, he and Alice not the only ones eating anymore; at some point when Saya was drowned in her thoughts, the conversation had turned to the two absent member of their group. "I'll take up look out, if you wanna get started cleaning the guns-"

"How do you figure that?" Saya suddenly butt in, looking across the table at Kaede, who looked away from Kouta after her comment.

"Uh, well..." Kaede said, scratching his cheek, putting up and intimidated look. "We weren't too far from your house when we got separated, right? They probably found somewhere near by to wait the night out, and should be on their way here right now, right? And of course Takashi's safe; he's got Busujima-san with him, eh?"

Saya blinked, slightly surprised at Kaede's assumptions; they were positive, unlike hers, and they were backed up by what they already knew; if Takashi didn't remember _they _were more active at night, Saeko sure wouldn't have. Plus him mentioning Takashi had Saeko with him did put a dent in Saya's assumption for the worst; she sighed lightly, concluding she should wait to discuss what was on her mind with the group until later at least, simply giving Kaede's reply a 'hmph' before crossing her arms and looking away.

A few unrelated conversations were brought up during breakfast, but the chatter died down as they finished up, the group slowly parting; Shizuka to go keep an eye on Rei, Kaede and Alice going to a balcony to keep an eye out for Takashi and Saeko, and Kouta leaving with Saya after asking her to show him the garage. After stopping off at the room to grab the Ithaca and AR-10, Saya dropped him off at the garage were the humvee was at and left without another word.

Back with Kaede and Alice, with Zeke tagging along, they made it to the balcony without getting lost; Kaede was watching the rear gates and the surrounding area through the binoculars which had actually been left on the balcony the night before by Kouta, while Alice played with Zeke behind them. A while into the lookout, Kaede sighed, leading against the railings, watching Alice and Zeke for awhile; Alice noticed this after a moment or two, and looked up at Kaede.

"Mmm, Kae-nii-chan?" Alice asked, seeing Kaede's full attention on her now, since it seemed he was zoning out watching them.

"Uh, y-yeah?" Kaede replied, blinking once and shaking his head; he had been wondering about Alice; she was able to keep such a cheery attitude, even after the horrible things she had seen, especially having her father die right in front of her. "Yeah? What's up, kid?"

"How do you know Takashi-onii-chan and Saeko-onee-chan are coming from this side?" Alice asked with a bit of a pout on her face. "And don't call me a kid; you're a kid too, you know!"

"Because if Takashi wanted to sneak in without drawing _their _attention to this place anymore, they'd come through the back. Heh, alright, alright, I get it...kid" Kaede replied with a small laugh as Alice stopped her foot down with a cry of 'Kae-nii-chan!' as he turned, raising the binoculars to look through them once more; as he did, he caught a figure out of the corner of his eye standing near a tree below the balcony.

Kaede looked over and lightly smirked, seeing Saya likewise looking out for Takashi, probably having had the save thought as he; it gave him light satisfaction in knowing he had thought of it first, but he doubted it would matter beyond that point. With the smirk still on his lips, Kaede looked through the binoculars and looked around the area beyond the gates.

Nearly an hour had passed, and Alice had stopped playing with Zeke for the moment, sitting against the wall with Zeke curled up next to her foot, napping. As for Kaede, he was still on diligent lookout for Takashi and Saeko, and so was Saya; she was now sitting in the shade of the tree, waiting. Kaede pulled away from the binoculars and looked over just as Zeke shifted and hopped up, Alice likewise watching the little dog.

"Zeke...? What's wrong?" Alice asked the dog as he began barking out at towards the house's rear gates.

Curious, Kaede pointed the binoculars towards the gates and looked through them, a smile spreading across his face as he saw Takashi and Saeko supporting each other as they walked; neither looked horribly injured, and Saeko had a real katana at her side, finally.

"They're back!" Kaede yelled, letting Alice look through the binoculars as he looked down to the tree. "Hey, Saya! Have someone open the gates!"

Saya jumped, seemingly to have fallen asleep, but when she saw the two figures in the distance, she was quick to awaken and to start barking orders.

"Get the gates open! Quick!" Saya yelled at the closest of her family's retainers, looking up to where the voice had woken her to see Alice and Kaede returning to the house quickly, no doubt to rush down and see how the two were doing; she smiled slightly, guessing Kaede must have though along the same lines as her when it came to Takashi approaching the manor.

Saya watched as the gates were pulled open and ushered Takashi and Saeko in as Kaede and Alice arived in the courtyard; Kaede stopped near where Saya was standing as the two passed through the gate, but Alice kept going, jumping and tightly hugging both Saeko and Takashi around their necks, drawing them together in the precess.

"Onii-chan! Onee-chan!" she cried out as she hugged the two happily, Takashi chuckling softly and Saeko smiling as they lowered her back onto the ground.

"Look's like you two made it back in one piece...right?" Kaede asked, cautiously as he eyed the two; he didn't like doubting Takashi or Saeko, even though he had really only met them a few days ago, but their current situation called for a little extra caution.

"We're fine; we weren't bitten" Takashi replied with a nod to Kaede before looking down at the Remington in his hand; Takashi raised it and held it to Kaede. "Here, sorry for taking it like that."

"Not problem; as long as you come back alive, I don't care what you take from me. I let you use it in the first place, remember?" Kaede said with a laugh, taking the shotgun and placing his arm around Takashi's shoulder, ignoring the looks from the Takagi family vassals who had opened the gate as the gun was handed over. "You two look like you went halfway to hell and back. How did things go while you two were out? Anything happen between you and the Lady Saeko?"

Kaede added the last part in a whisper, nudging Takashi in the ribs with his elbow and laughed lightly when Takashi looked away with a light tint of red on his cheeks as Takashi remembered how he and Saeko had gotten closer; that, plus the kiss, and Takashi's little 'ecnouragement' for Saeko, and there was plenty of room for misunderstanding.

Leaving it at that, Kaede rested the shotgun on his shoulder and walked towards the house,and Saya stepped forth, wrinking her nose.

"You two need a bath and a change of clothes" she stated, looking at the two vassals and they left to find clothes for the two. "Come with me, and I'll show you to the bath houses..."

* * *

A while later, Takashi was walking through the halls of the manor, his hair slightly damp after a bath and dressed in clean clothes, on his way to see how Rei was doing, having gotten directions from Saya. As he neared the door, the sounds from inside stopped him in his tracks.

"N-noo~! Dont, Kaede! It hurts~!" Rei's voice came from the room, Takashi face flaring; Rei's voice didn't really sound urgent, like Kaede was doing something bad, but it sounded more like a sort of...moaning.

Nervously Takashi neared the door only to stop mid step again, his face darker than before.

"Hold her still Kaede-kun; my hands are too slippery. Make sure she doesn't get away..fufufuu..." Takashi recognised Shizuka's muffled voice, followed by almost evil laughter, and more of Rei's protesting moans.

Takashi swallowed hard and decided to just continue on and pretend he didn't hear anything, even though his mind wouldn't forget. Once he was out of earshot, another muffled sentence could be heard from Shizuka.

"When you fell from the car, you hit your back, so we need to spread som ointment or it'll get worse~!"

Yeah, but you two are enjoying...mmhhnnn! You're enjoying this too much!" Rei whined shortly after...

Takashi turned another few corners and shook his head, resting his forehead in the palm of his hand as he sighed, thinking about what he though he had just overheard.

"Jeez, I don't know who I'm more suprised about...Rei, Shizuka, or Kaede..." he muttered lightly to himself as he walked down the halls, hearing something else even further down; yelling.

An argument echoed down the halls, but Takashi couldn't quite hear what was being said. Curiously got the better of him and Takashi walked towards the source of the heated voices, but theysuddenly cut off. Takashi shrugged slightly to himself and took a moment to think about what to do next when heavy footsteps began approaching. Takashi turned back down the hall to see Saya storming towards him in a huff, angry tears in her eyes.

"Takagi-" Takashi started to be quickly cut off, Saya releasing her wrath on him at his slightest of 'screw-ups.'

"I told you to call me by my first name!" Saya yelled, whipping on Takashi and completely ignoring his apology. "Don't lower your head to me like any other guy would! Oh, whatever...why would _you_ be any different! I thought at least you would..."

Saya looked away from Takashi suddenly, almost on the verge of tears before rushing down the stairs to their right.

"I can't take this anymore!" she screamed as she disappeared from Takashi's sight, leaving him confused and slightly troubled for his friend.

"I really upset her, didn't I?" a voice came from behind Takashi, making him turn around to come face to face with Saya's mother, Yuriko Takagi, who was looking to were Saya had rushed off.

"No, I don't think..." Takashi started to find out were Saya had gotten that habit of cutting people off from.

"Have you seen this side of her before?" Yuriko asked as if Takashi hadn't said anything and looked at him with a sad smile. "You've been her friend since Kindergarten, haven't you?"

"Haha, well, kinda...yeah" Takashi said with a halfhearted smile before trying to change the subject and looked around the hall. "Anyways, this is really amazing. I knew your house was big, but this is just...wow."

"You've never come over to play before?" Yuriko asked with a bit of surprise in her tone which troubled Takashi a bit; if Yuriko had forgotten something like that, what else could she had forgotten...?

"Well, no, I guess not" Takashi said, shaking his head slightly as he tried not to think of things like that as Yuriko chuckled lightly.

"Did you find the house of the leader of an ultra-notionalist group a little frightening even then?" Yuriko asked, jokingly.

"Possibly...frankly I find it frightening even now..." Takashi replied with a nervous look as Yuriko smiled at him.

"I like boys who are honest." she replied with a soft laugh, making Takashi shift slightly and look away from her and laugh nervously.

"Um..but, we're not overstaying our visit or anything, are we?" Takashi asked with awkward politeness, it being a bit over due and maybe a bit pointless in his opinion.

"Oh, not at all" Yuriko replied with a light smile and shook her head, looking out towards the window and into the courtyard, where a bus was being fortified with steel plates; her mind wandered, and she ended up speaking about something completely irrelevant to Takashi. "Right now, much like with it's water, Tokonosu is getting it's electricity from the dam up north at Okunako. However..."

* * *

Elsewhere in the masion, namly the garage, Kouta was working on the guns, having given his AR-10 a thorough cleaning, he had moved onto the Ithaca, reassembling the parts as he cleaned them with a cheery smile on his face.

"It looks like you're enjoying yourself" Saya's sudden comment made Kouta jump and turn to see her standing in the doorway, watching him. "Well, it's fine for you to just sit around having fun for now. You won't be able to do that for much longer anyways..."

Of course, this got the desired reaction from Kouta, and Saya smugly crossed her arms, waiting for it...

"Why's that, Takasgi-san? We're in this fortress-mansion, so we should be safe now..." Kouta asked, only serving to make Saya smirk, and to only confuse himself more.

'Ah, if there's anything lardo's good at, it's making me feel better about myself~' Saya thought, reveling in her own genius before answering Kouta's questions, eliminating any trace of smugness and turned it into her usual 'you're an idiot' look.

"Haven't you thought about how hard it is to secure electricity and water? Isn't that something they teach kids in primary school?" Saya asked, acting as if Kouta was really some idiot, which wasn't easily disproved; Kouta looked back at her with an obvious look of confusion on his face. "Jeez, you're hopelss..."

"So, what are you trying to say...?" Kouta finally asked when Saya was silent, he arms crossed, obviously looking down at him. "I...don't know where you're going with this..."

Again, Saya let her lips tug into a small smile at his stupidity, making her feel superior as usual. She quickly wiped it away though, and sighed disappointingly before continuing.

"The only reason that massive network was able to operate continuously was because every day, countless specialists could feel safe about going to work, and leaving their families at home." Saya explained before pushing her glasses up for effect. "And what about now? The world is filling up with _them, _and the people at the power plants and water plants obviously aren't trained to fight against _them_!"

* * *

"A small part of the Self-Defence Force was on standby in case of terrorist attacks, but they've been deployed elsewhere by now." Yuriko spoke, informing Takashi on the things to be after the outbreak of _them_, not because she felt like she needed to, but because she wanted to get it off her mind; as she looked at the teen, she saw he was in deep thought, but it looked like he was slowly understanding things.

"Then...in that case, what about the maintenance workers?" Takashi asked, bringing up the most important thing, and Yuriko looked back out the window to the bus. "...how long do you think they can keep working? Besides _them, _they have their own families to worry about..."

"Yes, that is true. You see that bus out there?" Yuriko brought Takashi's attention to the bus and things started coming together for him. "We're taking it and anything else, and making a run to the dam to hopefully extract the works and bring them somewhere else, were they will be safe and they know their families will be safe, so they can continue working...yes, we will take full responsibility, but we will only take those with the will to survive with us!"

* * *

Kouta cocked the Ithaca confidently, everything sounding just right and the gun almost feeling clean in his hands, and peered through the scope; everything seemed to be in order with it, so he lowered it, noticing an older man walking in, a surprised look on his face when his eyes fell on Kouta with the shotgun.

"H-hey..." the man started, stopping a few feet from Kouta.

"Uh, yes...?" Kouta asked, a bit awkwardly.

"Hey, is that thing real? It's not something a kid shout be playing with." the man said, taking a step towards Kouta; luckily, Saya was still in the garage and intervened before anything came of this little encounter.

"Is that all you wanted to say, Matsudo-san?" Saya asked harshly, stepping towards the man, obviously killing the confidence he had before.

"Ah, Saya-sama...well, um..." Matsudo started, wanting to say something but knew it was dangerous to try and back talk to _any _of the Takagis. "I...I'll go help and try to finish the repairs on the vehicle you arrived in."

"Very well, thank you." Saya replied with a smug smirk as the man bowed deeply to her before rushing off, and turned her gaze to Kouta to see stars in his eyes. "What...?"

"You're just like a real princess!" Kouta commented, Saya quickly stopping him before he said anything else to disgust her more.

"You're the last person I want to hear that from!" Saya bit at Kouta, whipping the look off his face; Saya frowned slightly before remembering something, and jabbed her finger at the gun in Kouta's hands, as well as his AR-10 resting against the work table. "More importantly, _those things! _You need to do something with them!"

"With the guns?" Kouta asked with more scepticism in his voice than anything that only served to anger Saya.

"Exactly! Didn't you hear what he just said? The adults are in charge here, and what are we? Take the guns to them, or keep them out of sight for now!" Saya yelled at Kouta; Kouta's initial reaction was to deny any thoughts of giving up the precious guns, so it took a second for what else Saya said to sink in.

"Let's...ask Komuro what he thinks" Kouta said finally, his grip on the gun tightening.

'Finally, he's said something good...' Saya thought to herself as she smirked.

* * *

Takashi made his way down the stairs into the room with the front door, his mind still thinking over his conversation he had just had with Yuriko; she wanted him to basically convey her plan to Saya, which she had already tried herself, but Saya was against it completely.

"Persuade Takagi, huh...I haven't won a single debate with her since kindergarten..." Takashi sighed hopelessly, when the sounds of a struggle drew his attention to two men moving a huge box of something; one of them semed to be on the verge of dropping his side, so Takashi was quick to help.

Lifting one of the sides, Takashi was able to raise it enough for the man to get a better hold on the box, and they both gave him a thankful look.

"Ah, thanks" the one he just helped said as the other began getting impatient.

"That's good enough, kiddo. We've got it from here" he said with a light smile as he started moving back, but Takashi wouldn't let go so easily.

"It looked like you guys were having trouble, and I wanna help!" Takashi protested, but the two quickly moved the box from his grip and started off.

"Don't worry yourself! This is an adult's job. You kids just kick back, eh?" the other man that Takashi had help said, taking a joking tone about it as the two continued on, despite Takashi's will to help.

The two left Takashi with his fists clenched and a frown, until he heard a familar voice from the stairs he had just come from.

"You don't look so good..." Saeko said as she walked down to stand with Takashi, dressed in a simple yukata, yet it looked beautiful on Saeko, and Takashi couldn't help but notice this, blushing darkly; Saeko noticed something was wrong, but didn't quite put it together. "What's wrong, Komuro-kun?"

"N-nothing really. Uhh, just...it looks really good on you..." Takashi said shly, avoiding Saeko's curious look; when he peaked up, he saw Saeko blushing and likewise looking away, and quickly took it the wrong way. "No, uh, I didn't mean anything weird!"

"Ahh, don't worry about it" Saeko said, waving her hands in front of her, blushing a darker shade. "I didn't take it in a bad way or anything..."

The two looked at each other and Takashi cracked a grin; Saeko soon smiled, and the two started laughing. To anyone else, it would have looked like the two had cracked under the pressure of the Outbreak, standing there and seeming to be laughing at nothing. Well, anyone other than Alice or Kaede.

"Huh? Nani, nani~? Did something good happen, Onii-chan?" Alice's voice asked as she walked up to the two with Zeke on her heels, and Kaede not too far behind them; Takashi noticed he had likewise changed, into a black hamaka and a white sleeveless shirt, it seeming to be his personal prefeance to wear just the wide pants instead of the whole kimono.

As he approached, Takashi couldn't help to remember what he had overheard, well, what he thought he overheard, and looked away awkwardly for a second, Saeko taking the moment to answer Alice's previous question for him.

"We were just talking about how glad we are that you're doing so well, Alice-chan" Saeko replied with a smile, looking at how the young girl slmiled cheerfully back at the two, and nodded.

"Yup, I'm doing really well, Onee-chan~!" Alice replied with a smile as Takashi's thoughts wandered.

'She really is been doing well. But, from what Shizuka told me earlier...she cried for a long time last night and kept herself up until Shizuka held her in her arms until she fell asleep...' Takashi thought, looking back at Kaede to see a concerned look on his face as he looked to Alice as she held Zeke up for Saeko to pet him a bit, much to the dog's pleasure; Takashi guessed Kaede was told the something and frowned, looking to Alice as well. 'She's really adapted to this hell, were she's lost the parents she needs...what about us? Will our parents be alright?'

His eyes again drifted to Kaede, then to Saeko, pondering the question that plagued all of their minds.

'Would I also cry and keep myself up at night if my parents turn out to have died...?'

Takashi's thoughts were interrupted by muffled voices on the other side of a nearby door, which eventually opened to reveal Saya and Kouta, who was carrying a canvas bag from the humvee on his back, and seemed he had been carrying it for awhile.

"Ah, it's Saya-chan and Kouta-chan!" Alice said, happily as Takashi and Saeko turned to look at the two as they entered the room as well; Kaede vaugly noticed that this was the first time the group had been gathered completely since they had gotten to the Takagi manor, well, save for Rei and Shizuka.

"Ah, we finally found you guys, and you're all together too..." Saya said with a soft sigh as she fixed her glasses. "We were looking for you all..."

Well, that explained why Kouta was so worn out looking.

"Why's that, Takagi-san?" Takashi asked; luckily for him, Saya basically ignored him.

"Komuro. I think we should talk" Saya said, her eyes wandering over everyone. "All of us."

"Am I coming too, Kouta-chan?" Alice asked, tugging on the otaku's pant leg.

"Of course! Alice-chan and Zeke are part of our group of companions too!" Kouta replied, giving her the thumbs up.

* * *

"...oh sure, let's all just asseble here..." Rei muttered sarcastically, still naked and on her stomach but she was covered with more than just a towel this time; she shifted under the blanket and shot Takashi a dirty look, who avoided it.

"W-well, there wasn't much we could do about it..." Takashi muttered as Rei grumbled under her breath. "With you not being able to move yet..."

"So what is it that we need to talk about?" Shizuka asked as she peeled a banana, having no idea what the topic was, like everyone else; they could tell it was important, but only Saya and Kouta really knew what the 'meeting' had been called for.

None the less, what Saya decided to start with was completely different that what Kouta though was needed to be discussed.

"The next time you set out, I'm not so sure I should accompany your little 'band of companions'." Saya said from her spot near the balcony windows looking out into the courtyard with her back turned to the group.

Almost instantly, Saeko and Kaede caught on, both frowning, and Saeko was the first to say something.

"Of course...now we've banded together with a bigger, stronger group..." Saeko said with a grave look on her face. "In other words..."

"Yes, I have two choices!" Saya cut in, truning to the group. "Can you understand that?"

"...split up?" Takashi finally asked, not as quick as Saeko or Kaede. "But why?"

With a scowl on her face, Saya pushed open the doors and stepped out onto the balcony and threw her hand out to the streets outside the gates, the group following her out save for Rei and Alice.

"Maybe you should look around and see for yourself! If you still don't get it after that..." Saya turned and glared at mostly Takashi and Kouta. "Then I revoke your right to call me by my first name!"

"You mean the streets...?" Takashi muttered as Kouta handed him the binoculars from the bag he had set down in the room already.

With one look through the binoculars, Takashi saw several of _them _who had found a fresh meal and were devouring the corpse. Takashi gulped and lowered the binoculars after a moment.

"...it has gotten worse. It's like a whole other world out there." Takashi commented, and took a look at the courtyard were the adults were busy, but they were all safe, no immediate threats or the need to fight for your life inside the manor's gates. "Your dad is really handling this well, especially for being a right-wing elite...your mom is amazing too."

"Yeah, they're amazing! They have a lot to be proud of!" Saya replied with a heavy sarcastic tone in her voice that made Takashi and nearly everyone else on the balcony look at her in disbelief; Rei was still in bed since she couldn't move, and Alice was also inside, 'keeping her company' when Rei was actually keeping her away while the group talked about such things Rei could only guess.

"Even now they're always away, dealing with this..." Saya continued, her voice now angry and hot tears welling in her eyes as she turned away from the group again. "But, if they can do this much, then..."

"Takagi..." Takashi tried saying something, anything, comforting even, but Saya quickly lashed out at him.

"Call me by my first name!" Saya yelled, turning on Takashi, but he didn't back down.

"You shouldn't talk badly about your parents, especially considering how things are right now. It's rough for _everyone" _Takashi replied harshly, the pain of not knowing what was to be of his parents shared by everyone, everyone but Saya, and she was bad mouthing them like this; it just didn't seem right, let alone helpful to the others.

"That sounds like something my mom would say!" Saya shot back, and hesitated, looking up for a second before suddenly snapping again. "I know, I know, my parents are the best! Even when something totally unexpected happened, they took action right away and protected their mansion and staff! They're great, they're the greatest, they're the best!"

Everyone was shocked about Saya's sudden outburst, Takashi almost disgusted; he could hear the sarcasm dripping off every word that cam out of Saya's mouth, and he hated every second of it, but kept to himself. Maybe it was best to let Saya let it all out like this...

"Of course, it's not like they forgot about their daughter! She's the apple of their eyes, so why would they!" Saya continued, tears now streaming down her face.

"Now that's going too far..." Takashi grit his teeth, but Saya paid him no heed.

"As expected! They're really amazing! I shouldn't expect less from my papa and mama!" Saya's voice quickly filled with malice, yet she kept the same cocky air about her, as if she really was proud of her parents, yet her voice and the tears betrayed the look. "They didn't think I survived so they gave up immediately!"

"Saya!" Takashi finally snapped, grabbing Saya's blouse and lifting her clear off her feet, her glasses falling off at the sudden movement and Saya's eyes wide with shock, and her mouth hanging open; either from Takashi finally calling her by her fist name, or his sudden roughness was unknown. "Stop this shit right now!"

Needless to say, the group was likewise shocked, both Saeko and Shizuka gasping and Kouta looking like he could kill; Rei had kept her shock hidden for the sake of Alice, who was playing with Zeke with her back turned, so she was completely oblivious, and Kaede simply frowning. He sure didn't agree with Takashi's methods, but Saya needed to be calmed down; even so, he could hear the pain behind Saya's voice everyone else didn't when she mentioned her parents forgetting about her, and his mind slowly began forming a plan, but to what means? Two were for sure...

"Ah...that was pretty sudden..." Saya said, more conserned with Takashi finally using her first name than anything. "It took you long enough to call me that..."

"It's not just you! We're all the same!" Takashi yelled, shaking Saya roughly to get her mind on what really mattered now, snapping her out of the sort of depression she was in. "We're all having an equally tough time! No...you know your parents are okay now, so your actually better off!"

The shaking had actually helped somewhat in helping Saya quickly recomposed herself she lookedfrom Takashi's face to the troubled looksof her 'classmates', understanding what Takashi was saying. Her gaze turned back to Takashi, and she frowned.

"Alright, I get it. So let go of me already." Saya said shortly.

"Sorry" was all Takashi said as he dropped Saya back onto her feet, and she swooped down, picking her glasses up first and putting them back on her face.

"Yeah, you should be. But it's fine" her way of saying 'thanks' for snapping her out of her little break down. "Well then, it's about time we got to the matter at hand, right?"

"Oh yeah..." Takashi muttered, remembering about what they had actually gathered for in the first place. "Erm, so what was it?"

"As expected, you still have no clue, huh?" Saya asked with a sarcastic tone, but she was back to her regular self, and that's all that mattered really to Takashi; Saya scoffed lightly and started. "Well, Hirano and I have already encountered it...here, we will be nothing but children. Out there, we're more, but we also have to fight for our lives day in and day out."

"Your point?" Takashi asked, since it seemed like he and Shizuka were the only ones who weren't getting it; it had already been explained to Kouta earlier, and Saeko as well as Kaede had caught on by now.

"It means we have two choices, like Saya-sama's already said" Kaede cut in, adding the honorific just to tease Saya, something he had been doing since she insisted on being called by her first name.

"Exactly as Himoura said; we either stay here as children, follow their rules, their orders, and, on top of that, give up the guns to them" Saya said, ignoring Kaede's offer to be referred to by his first name as well, and motioned towards the room where the guns had been left, Kouta noticably cringing. "Or, we leave this all behind, and face the world ourselves..."

The last part of Saya's sentence was followed by the rumbling of multiple trucks; Saya let out a long sigh, already knowing what the sound meant as the other's went to the balcony to see a black SUV leading a small convoy of gas tankers and three black vehicles with the Japanese flag painted on the sides.

"Is that...?" Kouta started, looking to Saya as she turned with the group to peer down as the trucks came to a stop in the courtyard.

"Yes, it is." Saya replied, her face hardening as the lead truck's door opened, and a tall, muscular man in the traditional Japanese military uniform* "He alone determines what's right or wrong...my papa!"

As Kaede peered down at the man, his power obvious from just the way he stood, he made up his mind, with the goals necessary for the better of the group. A long grin formed on his face, unseen by anyone else as he looked into the man's sharp eyes from the distance and knew it would be this man, Takagi Souichiro, that he, Himoura Kaede, would be able to use _that _ancient style on, for the first time in his life.

**Chapter 6, end.**

**Authors notes: Sorry for taking so long to update; I've been working on some other fics that I'll hopefully be getting up soon. I'm working out a schedual so hopefully I'll start updating with new chapters on a more regular basis, with my other fics I'm working on.**

***= I'm not sure what they're called, but I think that's what they were, military uniforms, for, uh, ceremonial stuff, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong, cause it would be greatly appreaciated.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Father knows DEAD**

"This man's name is Doitetsu Tarou. He had been a friend to me for the last 25 years! In attempting to rescue a junior officer, he was bitten! It was an act of self-sacrifice! This is the most noble thing a person can do! However..." Souichiro's deep voice boomed over the gathered crowd of survivors that had been rounded up after his arrival as a fork lift approached the raised platform he was standing upon with a cage sitting on it's prongs. "He is no longer human. His life ended when he turned into this abominable _thing!"_

The fork lift raised the cage to be level with the platform, the once living man inside now a vicious member of the undead, _it's _one eye white with blood seeping from it's corners, the other having been torn out and _it's _neck having a large chunk ripped out.

"And so, now..." Souichiro continued, his right hand dawning the elegant katana at his side as the cage stopped, level with the platform, a few other similarly dressed men stepping up and started undoing the locks, the once man inside paying them no attention; Souichiro's raised voice wasn't only to make sure everyone was watching him, but also to bring the undead's attention only to him. "I shall demonstrate my friendship!"

The locks fell and the savage undead beast sprung from the cage, straight for Souichiro who, with one fluid motion, raised his sword and swiped it down, before any of the survivors, Takashi's group on the balcony included, could fully comprehend what had happened; the zombie's head rolled at Souichiro's feet, one _it's_ arms and head having been severed in the slash, and the body fell with a thud.

"Fare well, dear friend!" Souichiro proclaimed, the head giving a final groan; without hesitation, Souichiro lifted his foot and stomped down on the head, crushing the skull and forcing the other eye out of it's socket.

As if only realizing them now, Souichiro looked out into the crowd of shocked on lookers. He cleared his throat and fixed his composure before adressing him, his foot still planted on the crushed skull of the undead monster that had apparently been Souichiro's friend.

"...this is the kind of thing that makes up our here and now! Great friends, beloving family, and lovers are all becoming _things_!" Souichiro stated, shocking and even angering the survivors and their mixed feelings over the who ordeal; Takashi's group was more mature in taking the lecture, in terms of having already coming to realize much of what Souichiro was saying on their own. "For their and our own sakes, we must destroy them! If you wish to survive...fight!"

* * *

On the balcony, the group was watching the gory spectacle with mixed feelings, mostly grave and serious, save for Kaede, the show only making him want to carry out his plan sooner to get it over and done with, since it obviously wouldn't be an easy task.

Kouta was also thinking of something else that was gnawing at the back of his head; he tried holding it back, seeing as there were ones among the group that were also the problem, but he couldn't any longer.

"...katanas aren't efficient enough weapons..." he scoffed lightly, hoping deep down no one heard him.

"Don't comment on things you know nothing about, Hirano-kun." Saeko said sternly, her gaze suddenly icy and on Kouta, as well as a sideways glance from Kaede and looks from Saya and Takashi, saying about the same thing as Saeko was.

However, Kouta did not back down, even with so many eyes on him.

"But a Japanese sword's blade dulls if it hits bone, and after three or four kills, the blade's through!" Kouta bit back, frantically looking at anyone but Saeko or Kaede, unable to hold either of their fierce gazes.

"Listen, following the way of the sword results in a number of things: skill, ability with a sword and finally, focus!" Saeko replied, her gaze softening slightly despite herself. "If these three things are taken to a high enough level, then one can behead any number of people without losing any combat strength, or damaging the blade too much."

Without much need of themselves, Takashi and Saya had looked away from the argument between their gun otaku and the two swordsmen too look back into the courtyard; several vassals had already disposed of the body, and Souichiro was walking down to meet his wife, who smiled sadly at the strong man. As both Saya and Takashi looked down, it seemed that Souichiro looked back straight at them, catching Saya's eyes who glared back down at her father, before her turned back to his wife, and followed her away.

"B-but you can get blood and grease on it! Plus the blade dulls, like any other edged weapon!" Kouta retorted, becoming frantic now over such a little argument, Saeko easily keeping her cool.

"It's like cooking." Kaede butt in with the simple comment, crossing his arms before explaining. "A good cook never leaves unnecessary grease, and defiantly not blood, on a good knife, and always sharpens it before use; it applies to swords as well. Uh, in other words, a good swordsman takes care of his sword, like a gunman, eh?"

It finally hit Kaede to use something Kouta could understand, never guessing doing so would anger Kouta; as childish as it was, Kouta didn't want his precious hobby related to something he considered inferior. None the less, he kept quiet as Kaede finished.

"It's the same concept with a gun; keep it clean and give it maintenance as often as you can, and you have a reliable weapon, either a firearm or an edged weapon." Kaede explained distastefully, honestly wishing Kouta kept his mouth shut in the first place.

"But...but..!" Kouta tried continueing, but it was hard, especially with Kaede's example.

"H-hey, Kouta. It's okay." Takashi said, reaching out to Kouta's shoulder, only to have it unexpectedly smacked away by the otaku.

"Don't touch me!" Kouta yelled as he whipped on Takashi, snapping suddenly, much to everyones surprise. "Don't butt in! You can't even fire a gun properly!"

"Hirano! You need to chill out!" Saya cut in at Kouta's sudden outburst, turning to him as well and causing him to be silent; without another word, he turned and rushed into the room.

Before Rei or Alice could say anything, Kouta had grabbed the AR-10, the Ithaca and the M1 and rushed out the door, slamming it behind him.

"What the hell's his problem!" Takashi hissed as he watched Kouta disappear through the doorway and the door slam behind him, not having seen him take the guns but could guess he did something like that.

"You should understand; you and Hirano-kun are both boys, after all" Saeko said, oddly calm and looking at Takashi, Kaede sighing at the whole ordeal in the background while Saya grumbled something to herself, no doubt an insult to at Kouta, and Shizuka just watching from the edge of the balcony.

"I know that already." Takashi replied, calming somewhat at the odd comment from the purple haired swords-woman beside him, looking over at her curiously.

"You're just...no." Saeko started, shaking her head before walking towards the balcony door and entering the room, seeming to have something on her mind. "I guess you're just opposite sides of the same coin..."

"What's she going on about...?" Saya muttered as she and Takashi watched Saeko likewise leave the room, and turned to Takashi; he had a clueless look on his face.

With a sigh, Saya followed suit and went through the room, Rei and Alice looking up for the third time to see one of their group leaving through the room. Again, Takashi watched as another left without a word and did nothing to stop her. He looked over at Kaede and he simply shrugged before heading through the room as well; Takashi could see him though the glass windows pick up his katana and disappear through the doom, Rei and Alice watching once more.

"What's with them...?" Takashi muttered to himself, reminded of Shizuka's presence by her giggling behind him. "What is it, sensei?"

"I was thinking, I'm really glad I came along with you guys." Shizuka said, giggling softly.

"...huh?" was all Takashi could reply with.

"Even though the world is being overrun by _them..._" Shizuka started, a honest smile forming on her face. "Youth is still wonderful!"

"But when you say it like that..." Takashi started after the words sunk in, but stopped as the smile faded from Shizuka's face, and she turned to look off the balcony again; the crowds from earlier had dissipated, the survivors returning to their tents and the vassals dispersing to their posts.

"You know, Komuro- kun, I..." Shizuka began, her back to Takashi to hide her troubled face. "I was getting my clinical training at the collage hospital, being the temporary school nurse, when I'd be dispatched elsewhere I'd have to make a lot of decisions on my own..."

"...this is sudden..." Takashi replied, feeling something was amiss, his tone serious.

"Please ask me...ask me for advice on what you should do. So..." Shizuka paused, holding herself tightly. "Things can be how they always were. Please!"

"...I'm sorry sensei." Takashi replied, looking away from Shizuka. "I can't right now."

"...then leave." Shizuka replied after a slight hesitation. "I want to live how I chose to. So...go away."

Without another word, Takashi turned and walked though the glass doors into the room were Rei looked up at him, she and Alice noticing something amiss instantly.

"Isn't there something you can be helping with right now?" Rei asked, looking away from Takashi as the thought of Kouta storming out of the room earlier came back to mind.

"Who are you to scold me!" Takashi suddenly lashed out, turning to Rei, to be met with Alice who was near tears, the sight making Takashi look down before he started for the door. "Tch...thanks..."

"...no problem." Rei muttered as the door shut behind Takashi, a small smile on her face; just then, Alice hopped up, and started for the door as well. "Ah, Alice?"

"I'm going to talk to Kouta-chan!" the young girl yelled over her shoulder as she followed after Takashi.

It took a few seconds for Alice to catch up with Takashi, she having to walk hurriedly to get along side him, then in front of him where she stopped, making Takashi do the same.

"Onii-chan, did you have a fight with Kouta-chan?" Alice asked, looking up at Takashi, who smiled sadly at her.

"...I guess so." he replied

"Then I have an idea!" Alice said firmly, Takashi asking what it was shortly after. "Talk to him again! Let's talk to Kouta-chan and find out what's wrong!"

"I...don't know if I can do that" Takashi muttered, looking away from Alice.

"Of course you can!" Alice said, her cheerful nature resurfacing as she smiled encouragingly to Takashi. "Since coming to Saya-chan's house, you and Kota-chan just haven't had anything to keep you busy!"

"...haven't had anything to keep us busy...?" Takashi echoed, Alice nodding, as realization dawned on him.

"I'll go tell him you're on your way!" Alice said, turning and running down the hall, the pattering of feet signalling Zeke was short on her heels. "C'mon, Zeke!"

Takashi watched Alice dash and the little dog dash away as he pondered the new realization, helped along by what Alice had said and soon walked down the way Alice had disappeared down, soon coming to the mansion's main door.

"It's the mutiny on the Bounty..." he muttered thoughtfully, the lesson from school having come to mind when Alice mentioned what she did.

"Heh, nice example, Takashi" Kaede's voice said from Takashi's right, making him look that way; there Kaede was, leaning against the wall with his arms cross and a light smirk on his face, his katana in the hamaka's obi and the upper half of the kimono folded over it. "Idle hands are the devil's playground, as they say..."

"What are you up to?" Takashi asked, his eyes narrowed slightly; he could tell Kaede was panning something, he just didn't know what.

Kaede simply waved his hand.

"Don't worry about that; don't you have more important things to deal with right now?" Kaede replied, looking at Takashi with a grin as he pushed himself from the wall and slipped on a pair of sandals; he waved over his shoulder at Takashi, and without another word, he stepped out the door and was out of sight.

Takashi sighed, shaking his head as he likewise pulled his shoes on and stepped out of the house, Kaede no where to be seen.

"I'll never understand these guys..." Takashi muttered to himself as he shook his head, wondering in which direction he should start looking for Kouta in.

"Onii-chan!" Alice's voice sounded along with the sounds of rushed foot falls; he turned to see Alice running to him, and stop a few feet infront of him, panting. "H-hurry and come with me!"

"What's wrong, Alice!" Takashi replied, instantly on alert and followed after Alice when she tugged on his sleeve, leading him along. "What happened!"

"It's Kouta-chan! Kouta-chan's in trouble!" Alice said, tugging more urgently on Takashi's sleeve to get him to run faster with her; he complied, running through the courtyard around to the back of the house, possibilities of what happened to Kouta passing though his mind.

'Did he try leaving with the guns and get attacked? Did _they _get through the gates? No...Takagi's vassals would have taken care of that...' Takashi thought as he ran along with Alice, who seemed to know exactly where to go; as they neared a small Japanese shack, voice could be heard, echoing to Takashi's ears.

"You don't want to screw with us!"

"Just give them to us already!"

"No!" The voice rung familiar in Takashi's ears, and he ran harder to get to their destination, and he could see faintly four figures surrounding a fith, who was on his knees, the unmistakable outlines of two rifles in his arms marking the fifth as Hirano Kouta, the others, all vassals of the Takasgi family, bearing down on him.

"Come on! You know these are hard times!" one yelled down at the teen, who was near breaking down under the pressure, but far from giving up the guns. "One person shouldn't hog all those weapons like that!"

"Hand them over to use already!" another added harshly.

"N-no! I'm borrowing these from someone. Besides...!" Kouta sniveled, gathering his wits. "Besides there's no one who can use these as well as I can here!"

"You little brat!" the same vassal who had snapped at Kouta earlier hissed. "Yoshioka-san asked you nicely, so stop being so selfish!"

"We only want them so we can protect everyone here!" the one who had spoken first, Yoshioka added, but Kouta's only reply was to hug the guns tighter. "He doesn't even care..."

Takashi and Alice finally approached the scene, Takashi yelling out Kouta's name as they neared; however, his voice was drowned out by a much more powerful voice.

"What is all this commotion about!" Takagi Souichiro's voice boomed out, silencing his vassal's and made Kouta cower in fear as he and his wife approched the five.

"D-Don!" the more agressive of the vassals jumped, intimidated greatly by his boss's sudden appearance. "Th-this punk kid thinks those guns are his toys."

"Tell me your name, boy!" Souichiro boomed at Kouta, standing directly in front of the sniveling teen, his overbearing presence doing nothing to help him calm down. "I am Takagi Souichiro, Don of our patriotic organization."

"Hi-Hi-Hirano Kouta, Fujimi High School, second year class B, attendance number 32!" Kouta replied in a jumbled mess, near tears from the Don's intimidating stance.

"So not speak so bodly, Hirano-kun!" the Don boomed out, making Kouta shrivle up as if being close to the Don was harmful to his well-being, and it might as well had been. "That I myself had to come here is proof that you have caused a good deal of trouble."

"Dear, this boy is..." Yuriko started.

"I know. he is from her class" Souichiro replied to his wife, his voice considerably less intimidating, yet still powerful and respect demanding; he turned his sharp gaze back on Kouta, making him whimper. "Now, why won't you hand over the guns?"

"No! Without the guns...!" Kouta started, shaking his head furiously, tears and snot flying side to side. "Without the guns I'll go back to what I was! I'm done with the old me; I'm done being useless! I've finally found something I'm good at!"

"Such as?" Souicho asked coldly, making Kouta look up at him in disbelief, stammering to try and get the words out from under the Don's opressive gaze.

"Such as protecting your daughter!" Takashi finally intervened, stepping to Kota's defence and standing by the sniveling boy.

"T-Takashi!" Kouta cried out as if the furious teen was a godsend.

"Hm?" Souichio examined the scene, the name familiar to him. "Takashi...Komuro Takashi, correct? I have heard your name before. You have known Saya for a long time."

"Yes sir, but since this all started, Saya's been..." Takashi waved towards the gates where, just a few streets down, _they _reigned supreme, then looked back at Kouta, then to the Don. "You daughter's been under the protection of Hirano Kouta!"

This silenced even the Don for a second, his wife smiling warmly at Takashi, then even to Kouta, just as Alice ran up to Kouta, hugging him protectivly and glaring childishly at Souichiro; on top of that, Takashi heard some struggled grunts and turned to see Shizuka helping Rei along(who was dressed in a simple white robe) to them.

"Even I see how much courage this young man had, Don Takagi" Yuirko said in a soft tone from behind Souichiro.

"And I can too, Papa!" Saya yelled, causing eyes to whip to Saya as she approached, Saeko behind her a few steps because of the shorter strides she took due to the kimono.

With seven of the eight group members coming to aid Kouta, Souichiro was impressed, vaguely wondering about the eighth...

* * *

Kaede sneezed and took a look over to where quite the crowd had formed a safe distance from the Don Takagi and his comrades, rubbing his nose.

"Guess it's time to make my appearance, neh?" he muttered to no one in particular, standing from his crouching position and started walking towards the source of commotion, his katana at his side and his hand resting lightly on the hilt; if only the hamaka were a worn down a bit, anyone would have said he looked like a true ronin...

* * *

"He may be a freak and a worthless gun otaku, but it's because of him that I'm here!" Saya stated in Kouta's defence, shocking her mother and father, as well as Kouta, and the rest of the group. "He's one of my companions, and has been protecting me...unlike you, Papa!"

"Regardless of what he has done, I cannot allow him to keep all those guns to himself!" Souichiro boomed out, turning his attention on the two rifles and the shotgun in Kouta's arms. "In a time like this, the ones in charge need weapons like that the most-!"

"Well, in that case, I have a bit of a proposition for you, Takagi-sama." a voice rang out; Souichiro's eyes moved past Kouta, along with every one esle's, onto Kaede, who paused momentarily, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "Ah, shit...didn't mean for such a dramatic entrance..."

"You speak pretty boldy. What is this proposition you speak of?" Souichiro replied, his attention soully on Kaede now, who seemed the least bit intimidated; quite the opposite, he held Souichiro's gaze unflinching, only making the Don intensify his glare as the teen approached.

"A sparing match, and I'll represent our group; we win, we're recognised as our own group and we keep our guns" Kaede said as he came to a stop in front of Kouta, finishing the terms before Souichiro, or anyone else could butt in. "If we loose, we'll hand over the guns and become a more...co-operable as a whole."

"Hmm...arrogant words for a child of no stature" the Don bit back, examiling Kaede; he had been told his name, but it slipped passed him at the moment it was given, and now it really was bugging him. "Suggesting being recognised as a group...who is your leader and why isn't he suggesting this match?"

"Komuro Takashi" Kaede replied simply, the only one of them really surprised by this was Takashi himself; Kaede smirked over his shoulder at him as did Saeko, Rei, Saya and even Shizuka(Kouta would have too, but he was still trying to regain himself). "And well, let's just say we didn't disguss this fully yet; matters arose that made it necessary to execute before we could."

"I see then..." Souichiro's eyes drifted to Takashi and the teen tried holding his gaze the best he could before turning harshly on Kaede again. "So, why you? Wouldn't Busujima-kun be a better choice for something as important as this? Who are you to take such an honor without disgussing such a thing without the consent of your leader!"

"Himoura Kaede..." the dark haired teen replied, looking directly into Souichiro's eyes, a glare flashing in his eyes that matched Souichiro's, suprising the Don. "Former student of the Hiten Mitsurugiryu* style."

Souichiro's eyes instantly narrowed at this.

"Hiten Mitsurugiryu? That's a family technique...indeed, you carry their name, however, there was only one child of the new generation, and he is many years older than you." Souichiro stated, narrowing his eyes at Kaede. "How can you know such sword style? Are you lying?"

"It matters not what I say, no?" Kaede replied with a smug smirk; the Don had gone for his bait. "The one true way is to learn first hand, neh? And that'll happen only if you accept our terms..."

* * *

Not even a full hour had passed since the kid had challenged the Don, and yet word had gotten around to every vassal at the manor, regardless if they were actually there or out guarding streets to the mansion; the platform the Don had used for his demonstration earlier had already been set up, and a crowd had already formed, but the Don and the teenager where nowhere to be seen. His group was there, yes, but the teen, no, and that was causing a bit of a sit in it's self, rumors flying left and right about who it all started, and the two's absence from the platform. In truth, however, Kaede had asked to speak with Souichiro in private, with the pretext of re-establishing the terms of the battle.

"The terms remain the same, Takagi-sama, however..." Kaede spoke with the Don, looking up at him with firm eyes. "I'd like to ask you one favor...if I win, I want you to apologise to Saya..."

The look on Takagi Souichiro's face told Kaede that Saya's accusations weren't too far off; the change in expression, no matter how slight or how fast it was hidden, told Kaede there was no need to finish, but he did.

"For assuming she didn't survive the Outbreak of those _things._"

"I...will try." Souichiro replied before turning his back to Kaede and walked away. "Come, we have a match to start, boy!"

"I told you, my name is Himoura Kaede" he replied with a scoff as he followed after Souichiro, who only grunted.

"Consider that as another term of the match; I'll recognise that name of yours!" Souichiro shot back coldly as they rounded the house; the small crowd of vassals and a few of the survivors gathered to watch the match fell silent as the two walked to the platform, Souichiro walking to the otherside while Kaede stayed on the left.

There was no need for an introductory speech, since in all honesty this was supposed to be a private match, having nothing to do with the vassals or other survivors; none the less, Souichiro allowed the crowd to watch, there being no harm in it anyways. He turned to face his young apponent, towering several heads above him and obviously more built than him, but Kaede stood just as confidently and arrogantly as he, the Don.

"Are you inteding to use that sword there, boy?" Souichiro asked, his eyes having drifted to the sword Kaede was resting his hand apon, his own in his left hand, ready to be drawn. "Such a thing wouldn't last long against a properly forged blade. I can offer you a proper sword...for this match, at least."

"I'm aware of that, but I've made a sort of bond with it, over the short period of usage" Kaede replied with a shrug. "Thanks for the offer, but I'll decline, Takagi-sama."

"Very well then, boy. Prepare yourself!" Souichiro replied, drawing his katana and handing off the sheath to a near-by vassal, stepping into a ready stance.

Kaede likewise prepared himself, however he placed his left hand on the sheath's top and held the hilt with his right, not yet drawing as his stance widened out, his left leg brought back and his wight distributed on both legs, giving him a firm, wide stance; the basic stance of the Hiten Mitsurugiryu style, as Souichiro and Saeko noticed.

Speaking of the purple haired warrior, she was showing quite the interest in the battle, and not for the terms or out come, having many of the same questions as Souichiro. Takashi noticed something was up with her; while every one else was worried for Kaede's safety, Saeko was calm and watchful, yet there was something in her eyes that told something was troubling her.

"What is it, Saeko-san?" Takashi finally asked, bringing Saeko out of the trance like state she was in, watching the two on the platform.

"Ah...well...it's about Himoura-kun. I know of the Himouras and their family sword style, but I thought it was a coincidence..." Saeko replied, and Takashi recalled her father was a really well known kendo teacher with a long history of such things, so she would probably know about things like this. "As Don Takagi-sama said, there's only one child of this generation, and he's older than Kaede, but..."

"But what?" Takashi asked after Saeko was silent for a moment.

"My father heard rumors of an illegitimate Himoura child that was being taught the family's style, but everyone thought of it as a rumor..." Saeko said with a slight frown. "It's odd, but it looks like the rumors were true..."

Takashi only nodded, looking back up to Kaede with a new sort of understanding; as he was turning his gaze, he caught a glimpse of Saya, and it looked like she knew the same thing as Saeko did, which he half expected.

After standing off for several minutes where Souichiro studied Keade's stance, and Kaede doing the same, Souichiro deemed the teen's stance to be well perfected, but that didn't tell him much; a stance was a stance, and didn't give away too much about training other than discipline, and Kaede had it, though, Souichiro didn't have much to go on, the Hiten Mitsurugiryu not being a very common sword style, especially since it was more of a killing style.

Souichiro shifted his foot, preparing for a charge and drew Kaede's eyes to the simple movement; he took the chance and lunged for Kaede. Metal sung as Kaede drew his blade, pushing off with his left foot with blinding speed; only a handful of people saw it, Saeko and Souichiro included. With the power behind the quick drawing of his blade, Kaede parried Souichiro's left-down ward strike with a clash of metal, throwing him off balance for a second.

Placing his left hand on his sword hilt, Kaede tried taking advantage of the Don's unbalance and swong horizontally at him; the Don blocked easily and caught Kaede blade with his own, the two katanas locking before Souichiro used his supirior streangth to throw Kade back a few meters. With the same trick he used to begin with, Kaede quickly covered that distance, jumping up and swinging his blade down.

Souichiro raised his blade, blocking the attack, but Kaede let his blade slide along Souichiro's, using his greater speed and shorter height to his advantage, crouching slightly and bringing his sword back, lunging it straight for Souichiro's abdomen. The lunge was sloppy in Souichiro's opinion, and he easily side stepped it, the blade cutting at his coat but little else; this was what surprised Souichro, since he was sure he would be clear of it, the lunge not looking as sloppy as it did.

The Don didn't have much time to compensate this as Kaede brought his sword back and went for an upwards slash; Souichiro parried and pushed Kaede back, bringing his sword crashing down on Kaede's. To stop the blow, Kaede had to support the end of his katana with his left hand, and even that didn't stop it right away; the blade sunk down, and cut his shoulder, Kaede having moved his body to the side to avoid the blade getting anything vital.

As blood flowed from the wound, Rei and Shizuka gasped, Kouta holding Alice to prevent her from seeing, in his opinion, Kaede getting his ass kicked; even Saya reacted to this, knowing how strong her father was and thinking Kaede extremely stupid for challenging him, even if her was the illegitimate child of the Himouras.

"That can't be allowed!" Rei hissed, still being held up by Shizuka, having insisted on staying out for the battle. "Why aren't they using wooden swords anyways!"

"There's a lot more to be proven in a battle like this..." Saeko answered simply, and Rei growled softly, but remembered how Kaede said not to interfere not matter what before he went off to talk to the Don, further showing his confidance in winning. "As a battle between two true warriors, using live blades is the only option."

Kaede didn't haven give the small wound a second thought, slipping from under Souichiro's sword and sending an upward slash at him; Souichiro barely got his sowrd in position on time, blocking with the lowest part of the katana's blade, just above the tsuba and again pushed Kaede away with an upward swing of his sword. Blood flew from the tip of Souichiro's blade as the tip caught Kaede's right cheek, cutting upward just enough for it to start bleeding quickly.

"I know he told us not interfere but this has to stop!" Shizuka was the one to speak up this time, and it sounded as if Souichiro and Kaede heard her, since both came to a stop and Souichiro lowed his sword.

"We can, if that is what you wish." Souichiro said, looking at Kaede, knowing he heard his comrad's conserd words, but the teen only shook his head.

"I'm fine, they're just scratches" Kaede said over his shoudler to the group standing near the base of the platform, and turned his attention to Souichiro. "Thanks for the offer, but you won't recgongnise this as a victory for either of us, and it things'll just go back to what they were like."

Souichiro was silent, the words true and they both knew it.

"There's too much at stake for the group for me to give up, besides..." Keade grinned softly. "There's something else I need to show you to prove I'm a real Himoura..."

"Oh?" Souichiro replied, the traces of a smirk forming on his lips as he raised his sword again, interested in Kaede's words.

Kaede only chuckled to himself as he slid his katana back into it's sheath, stepping into the stance he started in, but took a deep breath and closed his eyes, preparing; Souichiro knew something was coming, but didn't know what, and that was more than enough for him to acknowlage Kaede as a true Himoura. Maybe not admit defeat, but recognise him as a Himoura for sure.

The Don stepped into a simple stance for blocking as Kaede's eyes opened, sharp and ready; no body blinked, yet they still didn't see what happened. One second Kaede's on the left side of the platform, the next, metal and metal clashed as Souichiro blocked the strike, stumbling back a few steps.

The Don instantly knew that wasn't it as Kaede started turning for a second, more powerful spinning slash and tried to step back more; he was shocked to find he couldn't for a split second, as if something was pulling him in the opposite way he wanted to go. That split second was all Kaede needed to finish his spin, and sent a fast, powerful horizantal swing at Souichiro.

Metal screamed as sparks flew when Souichiro block just in time, holding his sword virtically along his arm, supporting it with his arm and all the strength in his body; the result was Kaede's katana bending at a near perfect fifty degree angle, completly ruining the contest sword Kaede used since the begining of the Outbreak.

"Amakakeru...Ryuu no Hirameki...*" Kaede panted out, resting aginst the katana locked with Souichiro's, the Don suprised at the sheer speed and power of the attack, as well as the momentary inmobility the first strike caused, doubting it was unintentional; the second stroke not only ruined Kaede's sword, but also put a nick in his own, and even caused him to bleed from where the back of his own blade bit into his arm.

"Un...beleivable..." Souichiro gasped out, at a loss for any other words, like everyone else in the crowd.

After using that technique for the first time in a real combat situation, Kaede's body felt heavy, his shoulders numb and his legs weak; without even realizing it, he began falling, dropping the bent katana, but was caught by the neck of his shift, and lifted to his feet by none other than the Don himself, looking extreamly impressed and pleased.

"Amazing! I've only heard rumors about that technique!" Souichiro said heartily, letting out a bout of boom laughter. "Thank you, thank you so very much for showing it to me fist hand; I assume that you've not completed your training on it, however? You did mention you where a former student..."

Kaede only nodded weakly, not sure if the treatment the Don was giving him now or before was more scary as he let out more booming laughter, likewise scaring half of his vassals watching, adding to their shock that the Don was even capable of laughing or smiling.

"It was wonderful none the less! I must give you a replacement for that sword...and yes, I'll admit this was my loss; all your terms are granted!" Souichiro said, patting Kaede on the shoulder, making his knees buckle under him, but he was again caught before falling, by Shizuka this time, who was taking up her role as a nurse again; she glared slightly at Souichiro before cheching the two noticable wounds on Kaede. "Ah...it must be very taxing on your body, I see...well, I'll leave you to your nurse for now, but I wish to speak with you once your bandaged up."

Souichiro began regaining his compsure as Shizuka walked off with Kaede, motioning Takashi who was now supporting Rei to follow after her. In a good mood, Souichiro ordered the platform to be taken down an those not helping with it to disperse imidiatly befor eleaving himself, to seek out his daughter who had dissapeared among the bussling vassals.

As the people began dispersing, Saeko happen to look over towards the house, and thought she saw a familar figure around the corner, however, a man walked by, obstrucking her veiw for a second, and the figure was gone. Saeko shrugged it off as an after effect of the shock and excitment of seeing such a tecnique being used and such a wonderful battle...

* * *

"Yes, that's right. I'm preparing my escape right now." a young teen spoke into his cell phone, a survivor found near the barricades of the manor only yesterday, pausing to listen to the soothing voice of his wonderful teacher. "I think if we ask them now, they'll let us in. Yes...yes, Shiou-sensei!"

**Chapter 7, end.**

**Author's notes: Sorry it took so long to update; this chapter was a bit difficult, along with me trying to work on other fics...well, it just took awhile to finish it.**

**Hiten Mitsurugiryu=Flying Heaven Honorable Sword **

**Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki=Heavens Gliding Dragon Flash**

**Both **_**Ruroni Kenshin **_**referances, I decided to give Kaede an interesting family history.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Authors notes: I'll be skipping the part where Souichiro gives Saeko the Murata katana, and the part where Saya, Kouta and Takashi go to convince the other survivors to trust Souichiro and his men, because they'll happen the exact same way, and I have other things to focus on really. Oh, and I have a link to a picture of Kaede up on my profile, so check it out if you were curious of what I pictured him to look like; it's not the HOTD style, but meh. It's how I want him to look, basically.**

**Chapter 8: DEAD Calm before the Storm**

Less than two hours had passes since Kaede's victory in the sparing match with Souichiro and so much had already changed; after a private talk with her father, Saya had been given the task of gaining the trust of the other survivors for the Don and his men, there being a crucial need for it for the mansion to keep running properly with the survivors in tow. It had ultimately turned out as a favor from the smaller group, as Takashi and Kouta insisted on joining her.

As for Alice and Saeko, Yuriko had taken Alice off to give a 'present' to Zeke to keep the girl out of the way, and Souichiro had requested Saeko's company to talk something over; Rei and Kaede were both under the medical care of Shizuka, so they were kept bedridden until Kaede was properly bandaged, and Rei more or less there for as long as Shizuka saw fit.

The nurse had Kaede stay in the same room as Rei for the time being to properly dress his wounds; after cleaning the cut on his cheek and placing a large bandage upon it, she had Kaede remove his shirt, which was now stained with blood to bandage his arm. The removal of his shirt was really unnecessary, but Shizuka was playing the match maker, noticing Rei peeking over at Kaede every minute or so as she bandaged his wounds, even feeling a few jealous glances aimed to her.

As Shizuka tugged the shirt off Kaede's body with some resistance from him, Rei gulped, watching as his muscled form was shown; the two girls gasped as something else became apparent. A huge nasty bruise had formed across Kaede's upper back.

"Using the...uh, that technique did this, isn't it?" Shizuka asked, having forgotten the name of the final attack Kaede used just hours before. "This is..."

"Yeah. The style was originally meant for people with large builds..." Kaede started, looking to see Shizuka's clueless face. "Er, it's very taxing on a person who hasn't mastered it yet, in simpler words."

"Well, as the nurse, I cannot allow you to use it ever again! It's a wonder you didn't tear any muscles...you didn't, right? You don't look like you're in too much pain." Shizuka muttered, looking closer at the bruise to no avail, having to feel to determine it herself but the bruise looked tender.

"No, I didn't Shizuka-sensei, and don't worry; I doubt I'll have to fight anyone but _them _for awhile...plus, I don't have a katana anymore." Kaede replied and rolled his shoulders, bringing Shizuka's attention back to the wound on Kaede's arm; he had washed away the blood before coming into the room, so his arm was no longer covered in red, but there were still a few trickles running down his arm.

Shizuka cleaned the blood away and wrapped a few strips of gauze around his arm with a bit of medical ointment to hep along with the heeling; as she reached for the same oil she used for Rei's back, Kaede was already standing and pulling the kimono up for the first time.

"Ah, Himoura-kun, your back!" Shizuka protested, feeling a spike of malice from Rei's direction.

"If anyone, I'll apply the oil to Kaede's back!" Rei suddenly yelled before she realized what she said, her voice heavy with jealousy; realization dawned on her as Kaede looked back at her with mild surprise, and Shizuka giggled. "Er, I mean...s-she enjoys that kinda stuff to much! You know that too!"

Kaede's look only became more odd at her words, and Rei decided to just shut up.

"Um, maybe later. I need to go see Takagi-sama..." Kaede said with a light smile before looking to Shizuka. "Thanks for wrapping me up, Shizuka-sensei."

"I'm glad to help" Shizuka replied, cheerily smiling to Kaede, making Rei grind her teeth as she glared at Shizuka.

With a nervous look, Kaede quickly made his get away, sighing as he walked down the hall. He made a quick stop at his room to change out of the kimono and hamaka, opting for another t-shirt and a jumpsuit like Kouta had been wearing that they had been loaned from one of the family's vassals; much like what he did with the kimono, Kaede left the upper half off, tying the sleeves at the waist and rolling the pant legs up a bit, since they were a bit long. After changing, Kaede noticed that the Ithaca nor the AR-10 had been returned to the room, but the M1 had been, and his M870 laying on the bed where he had left it; he shrugged, guessing Takashi and Kaede were out carrying their guns, and picked up his own.

Almost like a katana, they had earned the right to walk around with the guns, so why not? He strapped it across his chest and left the room, walking down the hall as his mind drifted back to the happenings in the room, and even he and Rei's relationship before the Outbreak; after Rei and Hishashi had broken up, Kaede became one of Rei's closer friends, being a sort of shoulder to cry on since he had known her since middle school. He knew in all reality, Takashi had more of a right to do it, but he had asked Rei out; he was declined, Rei saying it was too soon.

Kaede more or less left it at that, remaining Rei's friend either way; apparently, people got the wrong impression and said they were together. Two days before the Outbreak, they had a fight; Rei had heard the rumors that she and Kaede were apparently together, and Rei assumed Kaede was the one spreading them for whatever reason. Kaede tried making up with her, but it didn't quite work out, but now, after the Outbreak, Rei was showing signs of liking him, such as the night at Shizuka's friend's house, and that night in the humvee when she slept on him, and now, she was showing obvious signs of jealousy just from Shizuka doing her job, as impure as her intentions may have been.

"Women are so confusing..." Kaede muttered to no one in particular.

"Had a tough time in there?" a voice said, making Kaede look up to see Saeko, a new katana in her hand that he could even tell was very well made; Saeko noticed his gaze to the blade, and looked down at it herself. "A fine blade, Don Takagi-sama insisted I take it in place of my father. A Murata forged blade."

"Murata, huh? Impressive" Kaede said, his eyes raising; he wasn't too knowledgeable about swords and blacksmiths, but he was familiar with the general's infamous name. "He's pretty generous when you're on his good side, neh? Where is he right now, anyways? He wanted to see me after my injuries were tended to."

"Indeed..." Saeko replied with a nod, smiling softly to Kaede. "He was in the courtyard last. He spoke of you when he gave me this; he is quite pleased with your skill, so it would be safe to say to expect better gifts than this..."

"Honestly, I don't think I can accept a katana like that." Kaede said, waving his hand with a light chuckle. "It would be a waste, honestly; I'm not one to appreciate swords, for I know nothing about fine blades, I've only heard the general's name mentioned and am going on what I've heard when it came to that sword."

Kaede motioned to the katana in her hand, a look of surprise on her face as he admitted to such a thing.

"I see...well, he is very persuasive, I must say..." Saeko said with a chuckle as she began walking again, passing Kaede. "Good luck trying to decline anything from that man..."

"Heh...thanks for the warning..." Kaede muttered as he likewise started walking down the hall in the direction Saeko came, the two disappearing from the halls.

"Pay attention to the recoil..." Takashi repeated to himself, raising the shotgun to his shoulder, holding it firmly against his shoulder and aiming at a knot in the wall. "Aim just above the chest, and bang..."

Takashi lowered the Ithaca with a sigh; he was in his room, which was separate from Kouta and Kaede's, after finishing up the task with no real results, other than being chewed out by arrogant adults. He was practicing with the Ithaca, as much as he could without firing and using up the limited ammo when the familiar beep sounded; his cell phone was done charging, even if he wasn't getting many calls on it now now a days, he still kept it charged and running.

With a frown, he set the shotgun down and picked it up, dialing a familiar number; his house phone. It rang and rang with no answer, so he flipped it closed with a sigh.

"Guess it really is hopeless..." he muttered, putting his cell into his pocket and plopped down on the bed, his mind drifting to the battle only a few hours ago, and Kaede's proclamation, and Saya's re-establishment of it while they were out. "Leader huh...? That's not true, is it? Hell, even Kaede himself would be a better leader...why was it him who mentioned it in the first place...?"

There was a knock on the door that drew Takashi from his thoughts and looked over to it as the handle turned, and Rei slipped in, fully dressed in her uniform with the straps and pads on; she looked like she was straining slightly, making Takashi frown.

"If you push yourself like this, it'll only get worse..." Takashi commented as Rei invited herself in, walking over to the bed and sitting beside him.

"You shouldn't push yourself too hard either" Rei retorted with a small smile, looking over to the Ithaca. "You were just practicing with the gun just now, weren't you? That's good though..."

"Yeah, good. Right." Takashi replied shortly, looking away from Rei.

"You don't like being intruded on, do you?" Rei asked with a light sigh, shaking her head with a 'it can't be helped' attitude.

"I just don't like how tiresome things are. I mean, Kaede put us in a bit of a better position, but, I'm not talking about us..." Takashi replied, staring off out the window. "I mean like even after trying to reason with them, that group of people wouldn't budge; they won't even accept the truth that's out there...becoming like that would be the one thing I'd hate the most."

"And you don't agree with people like Takagi's dad either?" Rei asked calmly.

"His principles are different. He'll do anything for survival, even for just his footmen. He's really a great person, don't get me wrong..." Takashi said. "Just, his methods are..."

Takashi trailed off for a moment before sighing.

"But I...only care about making sure my family's okay. What kind of leader is that?" Takashi finished, bringing up how Saya and Kaede appointed him leader seemingly over night.

"But everyone depends on you, and you have plenty of courage." Rei replied with a smile that told Takashi she also accepted Kaede appointing Takashi the leader earlier. "That's how it was at the school, and other times too."

"Don't give me that. I'm nothing." Takashi bit back, sighing softly as he looked up at the ceiling. "The ones good at fighting are you and Kouta and Saeko-san, and Kaede, and...Saya's a good thinker and Shizuka-sensei's a physician. Alice-chan..."

As he spoke, the members of the group passed through his mind, only in little versions, dressed as RPG characters; Rei as a pole arm-user, Kouta as an archer of some sort, Saeko a samurai, Kaede a ronin, Saya a wizard, Shizuka a priest, and then Alice...

"Alice-chan?" Rei asked with a smile, Takashi stuck on the little girl; he knew she was just as important, but couldn't really label her anything.

"Alice-chan...is just Alice-chan..." Takashi replied with a sigh, making Rei giggle softly.

"And you, our fearless leader" Rei added suddenly with a smile, making Takashi shake his head, but stood and started for the door before Takashi could reply. "In any case, please consider our feelings too...we need a leader, even if his intentions are 'selfish'..."

Rei gave a sad smile over her shoulder to Takashi as she stepped out of the room, leaving Takashi with even more to think about, concerning both the group he had been put in charge of, as well as his feelings for Rei, and came face to face with Saeko, who was holding a new katana and smiling softly.

"I knew you were in there, so I waited for you. I didn't hear anything you said." Saeko said reassuringly; indeed she was standing away from the door with no intentions of listening in on their conversation.

Rei's eyes narrowed slightly at the sight of Saeko, but sighed, no longer having the right to call Saeko her rival; all her feelings for Takashi in terms of love and wanting him gone, and only a love that could be described with their long lasting friendship. She was sure Takashi hadn't recognized it yet, but Rei was sure he felt the same; even if he hadn't, she knew the way Takashi looked at Saeko, his love interest on the woman standing before her.

"It's alright, we weren't talking about anything important; I'm sure he'd be happier talking to you..." Rei said as she started walking by, catching Saeko's eyes. "Take good care of him for me, senpai."

"Of course." Saeko replied after a pause brought by the surprise from the words and started for the door; when Rei was a few steps passed, Saeko's head turned ever so slightly to Rei. "By the way..."

Saeko's tone made Rei stop for a second.

"Could you stop calling me senpai? If it were true, we..." Saeko said with a cold tone, Rei stopping her from finishing.

"Don't talk about that." Rei hissed and began walking down the hall. "That's something I'd like to forget..."

Kaede followed the tip Saeko gave him, walking out into the courtyard after slipping the pair of Vans he had arrived in on and looked around for Souichiro; he was able to easily spot the towering man, overseeing the fortifications of one of the buses. He began walking towards him without an after thought.

"Good day, Takagi-sama." Kaede muttered softly, mockingly taking up a similar stance as Souichiro beside him, crossing his arms as he looked at the buses, impressed himself with how they were turning out, more like rugged APVs* now than buses. "You wanted to see me?"

"Indeed, Himoura-kun. Come with me" Souichiro said, the terms of the battle showing as Souichiro acknowledged Kaede's surname, and turned, heading back towards the house again.

Kaede followed, noticing the Don was carrying a new katana and sighed, remembering how he asked for his own ruined katana to be destroyed by any means available after the battle, his wishes granted but in a way Kaede did not know. As they approached the house, Souichiro took a turn to the far side of the house; he walked for awhile with Kaede following, both silent, their destination becoming clear as they approached a cellar entrance, guarded by two vassals.

Kaede's interest was peaked as they neared the two, and with a nod from the Don, watched as they opened the cellar doors, and Souichiro lead them down; Kaede wasn't suspicious of Souichiro, but being lead into a cellar did put him on guard a bit, but the fact that he had his M870 on his back soothed him. Souichiro may be good with a sword, but Kaede was better with a gun...

Kaede's eyes widened a bit at the room the stairs lead into; it was a small armory with multiple racks of katanas on both sides of the room, and old guns from World War II adorning the walls, from every both sides. As Kaede looked at them in awe, some of them familiar, Souichiro went towards one of the katana racks that was obviously meant for special katanas, the swords stored horizontally instead of vertically and having their own separate shelves, instead of being bundled up. As Souichiro began looking down the row of katanas and reached for one, Kaede spoke up before Souichiro could turn and offer the sword.

"Sorry, but I can't accept a katana from you, even if it's twice as rare as the one you gave to Busujima-san; it would only be a waste" Kaede said, making Souichiro's hand hesitate, then pull back as the man turned his sharp gaze on Kaede. "Such beautiful blades should be given to someone who can appreciate it's beauty and power, neh?"

With that simple statement, Souichiro understood, but did not loose any of the respect that he had formed for the Himoura child, not having expected anything much in the first place. He was about to speak, but was beat to the punch, so to say.

"If I may make a suggestion, dear husband..." the soothing voice of Yuriko sounded out, followed by the sound of her high heels on the stone floor as she walked into the room and to her husband, waiting for his nod before continuing. "Give him something beautiful he can appreciate."

Yuriko's eyes flickered over to the collection of guns, Kaede and Souichiro's eyes following; Kaede's heart skipped a beat as Souichiro agreed.

"Very well; I'll leave the decision up to you then, sine you are much more knowledgeable about firearms dear." he replied in the softer voice he reserved for only his wife; Yuriko nodded and walked away from her husband, eying the WWII weapons as she passed them.

"They are quite nice, but I'd think you'd want something a bit more...modern." Yuriko said, looking at Kaede as she passed the racks of guns to where there where various crates piled up, no doubt ammunition and guns that were stored away.

Yuriko opened one crate and took only a second to find what she had in mind to give to Kaede and brought it to him, setting it on a raised table in the center of the room. She motioned Kaede over, who sheepishly followed her silent order, and the Don looming over him. With shaky hands, he reached out and popped the locks open, not even noticing that Yuriko had again returned to the crates. He lifted the lid of the case, and if he had been a weaker man(or Kouta), he would have fainted.

"A WA2000...? Second generation too. W-wow...I never thought I'd see one in person..." Kaede muttered in amazement as he looked down at the rare and beautiful sniper rifle with it's standard scope, perfectly outlined by black foam and three clips; however, they were not the ordinary six round clip, but a extended, slightly curved twenty round magazine. "This...this is unbelievable..."

"And it's yours, if you'll take it." Yuriko said with a teasing smile as she set down a smaller ammo case with 'WA2000' marked on it with '7.62x51mm NATO' underneath it. "Here's some extra ammo and more of the 20-round magazines; I doubt you want any of the 6-round ones...and, if my husband would allow it, I'd like to send some more ammunition for you and your group, if that would be okay."

She was mostly looking at her husband as she spoke, who nodded once at the silent question.

"I...I thank you then, on behalf of my group" Kaede said, taking a deep breath before continuing, the excitement of being given the gun overbearing the need for politeness. "And I'll humbly accept this gift; this is more than anything I could ask for...thank you."

"No thanks needed; you showed me a technique I never thought actually existed. I should be thanking you." Souichiro said, bowing lightly to Kaede, who quickly returned the bow much deeper. "Now, I'm sure there are things you can busy yourself with; I'll have someone bring up the ammunition to your room shortly."

"Thank you again." Kaede said, only to have Souichiro motion to the two cases; Kaede closed the top to the WA2000 and locked it, taking it and the ammo case and disappearing up the stairs to ground level, Souichiro and Yuriko following shortly after making the arrangements with how much ammunition should be given to the group of teens, telling the vassal to take it to their room as soon as possible.

Kaede walked with a spring in his step all the way to the room; those who saw him looked at him with some confusion, but their looks were completely ignored. As Kaede arrived at the room he and Kouta shared, he noticed Rei walking down the hall, and waved to her.

"Wow, you're in a good mood..." Rei commented with a light chuckle as Kaede nodded, noticing the cases in his hand. "What're those?"

"Ammo and a gift" Kaede said with a grin as he opened the door, Rei following him in; the first thing he noticed was the M1 left against Kouta's bed and an idea formed in his mind. "Hey, Rei, ready to start learning how to use that properly?"

After having returned to the mansion after speaking with the arrogant survivors, Saya had returned to her room with nothing much better to do and much on her mind; she plopped herself on her bed, falling deep into her thoughts. Time flew for the self-proclaimed genius as she pondered the situations her group was in; indeed, they were favorable, but what would happen in their near future? Or tomorrow even? In this new world, no one living can be sure about tomorrow.

Before long, Saya's thoughts returned to the conversation with her father.

"Dammit...don't even think about it!" Saya growled at her runaway thoughts, jumping off her bed and sighed frustratedly as she left her room to look for something to busy her mind with; anything to keep her mind from wondering there...

Unfortunately for her, there wasn't much that she could do, rather, what she _wanted _to do, and ended up simply wandering the hallways, once again being left to her thoughts as much as she didn't want to think them...

_**Flashback**_

_With the match over and the vassals dispersing, Takashi, Saeko, Saya and Kouta where at a loss of what to do now; they assumed Souichiro had accepted the terms of the match, and they had been granted, but didn't know for sure if he would want to speak with them or not afterward. The end result was the four wandering off in different directions, Saya and Kouta towards the garage to see how the repairs on the humvee were going after Kouta gave Takashi the Ithaca, and Saeko and Takashi sticking around to see the end results of the match, or, at least, the stage being packed up for the second time that day, since both combatants had left._

_Takashi vaguely wondered where Souichiro had gone, and looked around, easily spotting him among the crowd, a towering figure...heading straight for he and Saeko. Despite himself, Takashi gulped, hard, while Saeko kept calm, noticing the Don approaching them as well; Takagi Souichiro was soon standing before the two, looming high above them both, quite the intimidating figure to behold._

_"Komuro Takashi-kun...You must be happy for Himoura-kun's victory, no? I can assure you, Kaede's terms have been granted; you and your group will be generally acknowledged as your own group, and you may keep your guns." Souichiro spoke in his booming voice, but he was detracted; he watched one of the vassals pass by, and there was something in his voice that told Takashi he had something more on his mind. "Tell me...have you seen where my daughter went?"_

_"Thank you, sir..." Takashi replied with a nod as he noticed that there must be something else Souichiro wanted; needless to say, he was a bit shocked over what it was, and became curious as to why, but, like Saeko, he didn't ask. "Y-yeah...she went to the garage to check on the humvee repairs with Ko-Hirano-san."_

_"I see. Thank you" Souichiro said, already turning and walking away, leaving Saeko and Takashi confused; Souichiro paused, and looked over his shoulder at Saeko. "Busujima-kun...I would like to talk to you in a bit, so please don't go far..."_

_With that, Souichiro walked away, the two waiting until he was out of sight; with an unspoken agreement, they followed at a distance as Souichiro arrived at the garage. They watched him enter, and looked at each other with a look of curiosity._

_Souichiro walked calmly to the garage where his daughter had been, trying to collect his thoughts; he knew he had to apologize personally to his daughter, even though her mother and his wife had tried apologizing for him; it just wasn't the same and he knew it for such a thing, a personal apology from both parents were necessary. As he neared the garage, he gathered his thoughts, and his wits, before entering the garage, seeing Saya, Kouta, and the mechanic, Matsudo, inspecting the humvee; as soon as they noticed him, Matsudo bowed deeply, Saya glared coldly at him, and Kouta cowered before him. That boy always knew how to make people feel better about themselves..._

_"Saya, I wish to speak to you..." Souichiro started, his eyes turning on Matsudo and Kouta. "Alone."_

_Almost instantly, the vassal bowed and pulled Kouta, who nearly fell to his knees after such a fierce gaze, out of the room, leaving the Don and his daughter alone. Souichiro watched as the two left, stalling as much as he hated to admit it, delaying what had to be done. As Matsudo closed the door behind he and Kouta, Souichiro had no choice but to look back at his daughter, who was still glaring at him fiercely, but he could see a curiosity behind the glare._

_"What do you want to talk to me about, Papa?" Saya asked harshly as she crossed her arms; she was surprised to see Souichiro silent for a moment, before bowing deeply._

_"My daughter...I am truly sorry...for losing hope for your survival. I assumed, since you where at school..." Souichiro started, not once raising himself, and stopped for a moment before continuing. "No...there is no excuse. I am sorry with all my soul; can you forgive this old man?"_

_Souichiro looked up after a moment of silence, expecting nothing from Saya and only a sincerity behind his sharp eyes; Saya was frozen stiff at her father's sudden apology, tears suddenly welling in her eyes as she choked on her words, taking a step back._

_"I-I..." Saya stammered, fighting back her tears with all her willpower, but they still came, running down her cheeks. "I don't know, Papa..."_

_"It's alright." Souichiro replied with a light sigh and straightened up. "You don't have to; I will understand. But please, trust that I am truly sorry and...and I'm happy you are alive and well."_

_Saya chocked back a sob and turned on her heel, away from her father as she tried wiping away the tears; just in time too, as Takashi, alerted by the muffled sobs that had shouldered through the thin door, threw it open and stood at the threshold, regretting it instantly as the Don's will-shattering gaze was brought upon him._

_"Urk...s-sorry..." Takashi muttered, backing up just as he saw Saya's shoulder's heaving as she silently tried to keep herself from crying; this made Takashi stand his ground and look past Souichiro. "Saya, are you okay?" _

_"Y-yeah, of course!" Saya said, turning and acting like nothing had happened, despite her still teary eyes; so like Saya. "It's not polite to interrupt other's conversations, you know, Komuro!" _

_"It's alright, I was done anyways." Souichiro but in, turning to his daughter as his eyes softened some for a split second. "Just...think about what I said..."_

_Saya only nodded strongly to her father before his eyes returned to normal and he turned fully to Saya._

_"Very well now. I wish to ask you a favor than, survivor group to survivor group." Souichiro said, looking at Takashi as well. "There is unease among the survivors I have taken in..."_

As Kouta walked away from the shared room he and Kaede used after dropping off the M1 there, keeping his AR-10 across his back, he recalled how he ended up going with Takashi and Saya; Takashi, who was acknowledged as the leader, was a given, and Saya was too, being the most persuasive and trusted of the group by Souichiro, but Saeko had originally volunteered. Souichiro had other plans for her, however, so she had gone off with the Don, and he appointed Kouta to replace her.

It was troublesome, but there was no way Kouta could deny Souichiro, and ended up going around with Takashi and Saya; much good that did, since the adults had referred to them as 'high off violence' because he was carrying the AR-10 and the M1 while Takashi kept a hold of the Ithaca. All in all, it had been a pointless task, and only made Kouta hungry; he wondered when dinner would be served as he wandered the mansion's halls, having a sort of navigational sense now after having traversed these halls many times now.

As he turned a corner, he saw Saya standing a bit away, and decided to ask her about getting some food in his stomach, even if it would probably turn out to be his ass getting chewed for being a 'fat-ass', as Saya liked to call him when Alice wasn't around. As Kouta approached Saya, he saw she was leaning against the wall, facing it with her head resting on her arm she was supporting herself on and he could tell something was up, so he didn't say anything until he was closer.

"Hey, Takagi-san-"

"Call me by my first name, dammit!" Saya yelled as she whipped on Kouta, her glasses held in her hand and her face tear streaked.

"Ta...S-Saya...san..." Kouta had a bit of a hard time saying it, but managed; it being unimportant after seeing the state Saya was in. "W-what happened!"

Without warning, Saya rushed the short distance to Kouta, shoving her face into his...squishy chest, and started bawling her eyes out on him. Without knowing what else to do, Kouta nervously placed his hands on Saya's shoulder; when she actually hugged him back, crying even harder into his chest, Kouta held her tighter, protectively as he looked off into the distance, his manly instinct taking over and let Saya cry it out, while letting her know he would be there to protect her.

Saya's sobs didn't stop until several minutes later; she started calming herself down before stopping completely, staying like that with Kouta for a moment, before pulling back. Reverting back to his usual self, Kouta quickly let go of Saya and backed up slightly, watching her nervously as she wiped away the leftover tears, hiccuping slightly. She put her glasses on and composed herself before looking up at Kouta with sharp eyes, making Kouta cower.

"You...you tell anyone about this, and I sweat to God I'll kill you!" Saya hissed at Kouta, who cowered in fear and nodded quickly.

"Y-yes, of course! Not a word to anyone, Taka-" the glare from Saya intensified, and Kouta quickly corrected himself. "S-Saya...sama?"

Saya smirked smugly, feeling much better after that now, seeing Kouta in a new lightly; the moment was ruined however, by Kouta's stomach growling noisily. Go figure.

"Fat-ass..." Saya muttered before giggling. "I guess it is around dinner time...let's go look for everyone else."

"Okay!" Kouta said with a nod, liking the way Saya was treating him now, and followed her through the mansion.

It didn't take the two long before they found Rei and Kaede; as soon as they were outside, all they had to do was follow the gunshots, and the small crowd of off-duty vassals, watching a sniping ace teaching a novice, who actually had some skills. The ace sniper was really Kaede, who was using his new WA2000 given to him by Souichiro, and the trainee was Rei, who was catching on fast how to use the M1 as a gun, not just a spear, and was getting much closer with Kaede through the 'training'.

As the two approached, Kouta found it weird for Kaede to be teaching, especially with to boards nailed to a tree several yards away; as far as he knew, Kaede only had the M870 shotgun. When they got near however, Kouta nearly pissed himself in excitement.

"Oh my go, oh my god, oh my go~d!" Kouta shrieked out as he saw the rifle in Kaede's hand. A WA2000, serious! There's only 176 of those in existence; how did you get something like that, Kaede!"

"Oh, Kouta...Saya, what's up?" Kaede said, looking back after Kouta's initial squeal, smirking down at the rifle in his hands. "Oh, this? It's a little something Saya's father gave me. Neat, huh?"

Of course, he was teasing Kouta with the 'I've got a rarer gun than you~' attitude. As the two gun nerds ogled over Kaede's new gun, as Saya addressed them when Kaede was included, since she had more respect for him than Kouta, and it was a little less insulting than gun otakus, Saya went over to Rei, who raised her rifle against her shoulder, her finger resting along the trigger guard as Kaede taught her.

"I see you're learning to use that thing properly; that's good" Saya commented, mildly interested as she looked at Rei, the brunette having a sort of new confidence. "How are you coming along?"

"Pretty good, Kaede and everyone else says; I still can't hit the target directly yet, but I'm getting close!" Rei said with a cheerful look before turning her attention to Kouta and Kaede, Saya also looking soon after; the two had started arguing because Kaede teasingly refused to let Kouta use the gun, and Kouta had used the 'it's not what you got, it's how you use it' saying.

Without hesitation, the two raised their rifles, and the two shot round after round into the bulls-eye of the target; Rei also pressed the gun to her shoulder and lined up a shot. After a moment, twice as long as Kaede and Kouta needed to aim, she fired, the hole appearing slightly higher than the bulls-eye. Rei sighed, taking her finger off the rifle and lowered it.

"Kaede tells me to aim a bit lower, but I think it's just the recoil..." Rei whined softly, Saya thinking for a second.

"It could be both...try aiming lower until your use to handling the recoil; I don't know much about guns, but that sound like a reasonable solution, right? If the bullet hits higher than it's suppose to, than you should aim lower until you can make the bullet hit right..." Saya said, helpfully; Rei nodded and tired it, surprised to see that she hit the target, along with Kouta and Kaede.

They both stopped and looked at Rei, who smiled at them; they both smiled back, and Kaede gave Rei the a thumbs up.

"Nice shot Rei!" he said with a grin, Rei jumping in success at the praise, unknowing that a familiar bus full of familiar students lead by a hated teacher was making it's way to the barricades surrounding the Takagi manor...

Saeko watched as Rei left down the hall, the words of their little conversation ringing in her head.

"_Take care of him for me..."_

Did Rei know about her and Takashi's growing relationship? She had too, because she wouldn't say things like that. Plus, she herself could tell there was something going on with Kaede and Rei, having never really heard the rumors about the two going out, so it may be the same with her. She could tell they were childhood friends though, just by the way they interacted; really good friends, in the very least, so maybe something had started developing between her and Takashi?

Saeko sighed softly to herself and shook her head; she thought of things that weren't important anymore; all that mattered was the here and now, and that included getting acceptance, and even a request from Rei over her and Takashi's relationship. With that decided, Saeko walked up to the door Takashi was behind, realizing she had been standing there for three minutes or so.

She lightly knocked, waiting for a second for the gruff 'come in' from Takashi before opening the door, and stepping inside. Takashi was standing there, and had started practicing with the shotgun again, and was holding it loosely in his hand as he looked over, his eyes widening slightly as he blushed.

"Oh, Saeko-san..." he muttered, looking at her again and noticing the unfamiliar katana in her hands. "That's...?"

"Oh, Takagi-sama gave it to me, as a gift in place of my father; he insisted I take it, but I think he should have allowed me to give it to my father when...if I see him again..." Saeko hesitated, her father being over seas, so there was no way to tell if he was alive or not. "It's a truly beautiful blade, Komuro-kun; a sword forged by the general Murata himself during the Meiji era."

"I..see..." Takashi said, slightly lost as he listened, plopping down on the bed and setting his shotgun aside; he knew nothing of swords and that was fine with Saeko, who giggled and seemed to glide elegantly over to the bed, sitting next to Takashi with the sword across her lap.

Without waiting for a word of invitation, Saeko leaned her head on Takashi's shoulder; he felt him tense slightly, but relaxed quickly as the warm weight. They stayed like that for awhile, not having had much time together, alone, since the night at the shrine when they were separated; how Saeko had longed for a chance to be alone with the man who accepted her for who she was, and how cruel she could be fighting _them. _Recalling the night in the shrine, Saeko slid closer to Takashi, and before he knew it, she reached up and stole a kiss from him, the second they've shared together; Takashi was surprised for a second before melting into it, placing his hand on Saeko's cheek.

He may have been confused over his feeling for Saeko and Rei, but there was no denying what was in front of him, and frankly, his feelings for Rei weren't the same anymore. His crush had faded at some point, when exactly Takashi didn't know, but it had been turned on the purple haired senor. As he felt Saeko's tongue start prodding his lips, Takashi hesitated before opening them, his own reaching out to meet Saeko's; their kiss at the shrine was nowhere near as intament as this, but Takashi went with it, wanting to know the animal Saeko could become even more.

Next thing Takashi knew, he had pushed Saeko on her back, taking charge a bit more, kissing her harder and loosing himself in Saeko's sweet taste, as Saeko did with his; they were brought back by the sound of Saeko's katana hitting the ground softly when it rolled off the bed. They broke the kiss, and Takashi looked down at Saeko, panting; he blushed as he noticed the top half of her kimono had come loose and had fallen off her shoulder, reveling the top part of her lush breasts.

"S-sorry..." Takashi muttered, sitting up with a dark blush, breathing a bit heavy.

Saeko lightly giggled and sat up, fixing her kimono and swooping down to retrieve her katana.

"Don't be; you're a man after all, and I kissed you first..." Saeko replied with a smile. "You know...I would have let you continue..."

Takashi blushed at the suggestiveness in Saeko's voice, and let Saeko's words hang around for awhile, Saeko letting them die off and they sat in silence for awhile.

"I..." Takashi started; Saeko looked to Takashi almost hopefully, but saw his face was serious and what he was about to say completely unrelated to the sensual act they were just engulfed into. "I've been thinking...since you guys have made me your leader, I've been thinking of a plan..."

Takashi looked over to see Saeko listening intently, nodding softly to show she too acknowledged him as the leader.

"It's safe here, with Don Takagi, but Rei, Kaede and I still need to look for our parents." Takashi continued, looking at the wall. "I...I want you, Kouta, Shizuka Saya and Alice to stay with him. I'll talk to Takagi-sama soon, and ask for some sort of extra vehicles, so you all can keep the humvee and go with Takagi-sama if need be; we'll try and be back before they leave, so..."

"I'll go with you." Saeko said, firmly, and stopped Takashi from cutting in. "You're going into the city, right? You'll need as much of a fighting force as you can get..."

"No, Saeko-san." Takashi said, just as firmly. If...if we don't make it back, I want you to take care of the group with Kouta. I can't risk loosing you too; you're very valuable to the group."

Saeko was about to say something else, but Takashi stood and picked up his shotgun again.

"It's final; I'm going to go talk to Takagi-sama, then find Rei and Kaede to talk to them about it too." Takashi said as he walked towards the door, leaving Saeko alone in the room.

Sitting there for a moment, Saeko's grip on the katana tighten and she stood, leaving the room to head for her own, which was likewise separate from the other girl's, there being no more room for her there, with her mind made up; she was going with Takashi, whether her liked it or not, and Saeko was sure the rest of the group wouldn't let them go either with just the tree of them alone. They were a group, and they weren't splitting up that easily.

Takashi walked away from the mansion, his first guess to find Rei and Kaede was to follow the gunshots; however, they had stopped moments ago, so Takashi kept walking in that direction anyways. He had just finished talking to the Don about his pans, and basicly been told to do as he pleased; he even offered to supply a form of transportation and sent Matsudo the mechanic out to find something they Takashi and Kaede could drive, but also something they could afford to give up to them.

As he neared the point of the gunshots, he found Rei and Kaede, as well as Saya and Kouta, even Alice and Shizuka. He gulped; it was better to talk to all of them and get it over with, but it still would be difficult to do. Alice noticed him first, waving with a cry of 'Onii-chan', drawing everyone's attention to him; he noticed Kaede holding a new gun and Rei with the M1, guessing that he and Kouta had been teaching Rei to shoot.

As he neared, Alice run up to hug him, Rei instantly confirming his guesses as she told him how Kaede was teaching her to shoot and how she was a natural.

"That's great, Rei..." Takashi said with a small smile before falling silent and, before he knew it, everyone's attention was on him. "Well, I have something to talk to you guys about...Rei, Kaede and I will be leaving...to look for our parents. The rest of you, I want you to stay with Don Takagi-sama, and hopefully we'll make it back before they move out in two days."

The group was silent as Takashi spoke, avoiding holding anyone's gazes; Kaede and Rei's attitude's became serious as they where reminded of their parents, the rest of the group hearing out Takashi, their leader, before stating their complaints; Saya was first.

"Certainly, that's a better idea; here we can have our safety guaranteed...I'm assuming you talked with my father about this?" Saya asked, looking at it from Takashi's perspective; with the whole group, there would be too many chances to loose someone in an essentially quick mission.

"Yeah; he says to do as I wish, and he'll provide us with transportation..." Takashi said; Saya was about to state a counter argument, just as Matsudo approached them, panting; he had ran to the group as soon as he found vehicles for their mission.

"Komuro-kun, I found something you can use" Matsudo said as he caught his breath and motioned Takashi to follow; he motioned Rei and Kaede to come along as well, but the whole group ended up following him with Matsudo to the garage on the other side of the courtyard.

Takashi took this time to address Kaede's new rifle.

"Ah, you haven't seen it yet; Souichiro-sama gave it to me for winning earlier." Kaede explained. "Oh, and he'll be giving us some extra ammunition too."

Takashi nodded, only knowing that the ammunition part was good, their original stock running dangerously low. As they followed Matsudo, save for the short conversation about the guns and ammo, the group was quiet, debating Takashi's plan in their heads; Alice wanted to stay with Takashi, of course, but with such a serious attitude, she was putting aside her selfish wants and was waiting for the final decision to be made.

As the approached the garage, they could see it was open, and there being two dark green ATVs sitting out, with the humvee inside the garage, it's repairs near complete. Takashi raised an eyebrow as the two vehicles as they walked up to them and stopped.

"I could only find two that were working, unfortunately..." Matsudo started.

"Don't worry, I can ride with Kaede." Rei piped in before she realized what she had said; Shizuka was giving her a sly look, but Takashi was as passive as ever, since it was her choice to begin with, and he didn't really care she rode with Kaede to begin with.

"These are perfect then" Takashi said, giving Matsudo a nod, as Rei suddenly made a sound in her throat, looking off towards the mansion; walking towards them was Saeko, fully dressed with the addition of black elbow pads and black armor covering her shins from her knees to her ankles, along with a new pair of shoes, matching the amour with plates on the shoes themselves.

Along with that, she now wore two katanas; the Murata sword and the katana she sound in the shrine, the shrine katana being considerably longer than the Murata katana.

"Saeko-onee-chan...wow!" Alice said in awe as Saeko approached, seeming like some heroine from an anime to the young girl, making her momentarily forget her worries.

"Can you even use two swords?" Rei asked bitterly, having been easily out done by Saeko once again.

"No, not really, but I have tried using my left hand as my main during training recently..." Saeko replied, not hearing the harmless malice in Rei's voice.

"Isn't a bit early to get ready like that?" Takashi asked, his eyes narrowing; Saeko brushed his glare off.

"I said I was going with you, no matter what." Saeko replied coolly, and looked at the ATVs. "So, are those what we're using? Not much space your your parents..."

"They're only temporary; we'll look for a bigger car, if need be..." Takashi replied, already having thought of that.

"In that case, why not just take the humvee?" Saya added with a small smirk. It's as Saeko-chan said; we're going with you, no matter what."

"What?" Takashi gasped, turning away from Saeko to the group as they overruled his decision, all of them nodding in agreement of them all going.

"We're a group, and we're not separating so easily, Takashi." Kouta added, manly mode active and his voice strong, Shizuka and Alice nodding along with what he and Saya were saying.

Takashi was at a bit of a standstill before sighing and smiling.

"Fine, I got it I got it...we'll all go; I'll talk to Takagi-sama as soon as I can..." Takashi finally gave in, and the group rejoiced; Rei however, was no longer paying attention, her face contorted in anger.

"What's wrong Rei...?" Kaede asked, he and Takashi following Rei's gaze, soon along with everyone else, seeing a familiar micro bus with a familiar man in a black suit stepping out to meet the vassal near the gate the bus had just rolled through.

"No way...!" Takashi gasped; without warning and her hands holding the M1 tightly, Rei dashed off towards the gate.

"It's _him!"_ Kaede heard her growl, following after her quickly with his own rifle shouldered, Rei using the same malice in her face when they referred to the undead...

**Chapter 8, end**

**Author's notes: Another long chapter...meh, oh well; and I got rid of that thing, the amphibious vehicle or whatever, cause I plain don't like it. And yes, I'll be keeping the humvee in action for awhile longer. If you haven't figured it out yet, Google Image the guns if you don't know about them, though certain ones, like Kaede's Remington M870 MK1, I'll be uploading a picture of, cause it's a specific one that took me awhile to find. Also, I'll have more character art for other OCs in the future when thy appear; if you haven't seen it yet, make sure to check out the link for Kaede's. As you may guess, he's shown with weapons not yet acquired in the story.**

**On another note, I'd like to thank the reviewers, especially Dante-SonofSparda-EX21 for his review on chapter seven; thanks a lot, it was very encouraging, man. Ronin's fine, if you wanna refer to me at all for whatever. I'm only using your full user-name because there's another reviewer with the same name. Anyways, the next chapter should be out soon, so look forward to it~**


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's notes: Get ready for a really, really long chapter...and remember to reveiw.**

**Chapter 9: DEAD storm Rising**

_"It's him!"_

Shido Koichi stepped from the beat up school bus he had been using and driving himself before the 'rebellious faction' of students abandoned him and the others that were with him to meet on of the Takagi family vassals standing guard at the gate where the bus was currently parked at, a few students following him to stretch out, not like they really needed to, their activities in the bus giving them plenty of time to stretch every which way.

"Who thought the son of Shido the politician would be helping people even at a time like this!" the vassal praised mockingly as he approached the teacher. "Well, we're not having any elections with things as they are now..."

"That doesn't matter to me. I'm merely a humble teacher." Shido replied in a cold voice, hiding his scowl and putting up a friendly act to get into the mansion; they've gotten this far, and there was no way he would let such a lowly man like this cause him to turn back at the gates of his goal.

"Truly honorable!" the vassal said, with sarcasm dripping from every word; it was obvious he didn't like Shido, knowing their whole family wasn't one to be trusted easily."That you brought along surviving students with you when you escaped the school!"

"Of course. It's a teacher's duty..." Shido said, hiding his hate-filled eyes behind his bangs as he put up a bit of a show, speaking louder so the nearby vassals, and survivors not brought by himself could hear. "To put the safety of his students before his own!"

"I should have expected as much from someone brought up by a man like your father." the vassal sneered back, watching as Shido's students began gathering up behind their 'savior', then back to Shido as he cleared his throat.

"I know things are difficult here as well, but..." Shido started, continuing with in his louder voice to be sure he was heard by others. "Can you at least help these poor students? I'm fine on my own..."

"You're a real saint, aren't you?" a familiar voice called out, making Shido's eyes narrow in anger. "Shido-'sensei'?"

Rei spoke the honorific with poison dripping from it, and Shido turned to the voice to come face to face with the barrel of Rei's M1, it's bayonet pointed directly at him. The vassal who had been previously exchanging sarcastic words with the man seemed impressed, and the student's having varied responses, mostly of anger and shock, never having expected to see Rei alive, especially not with a gun, or the guts to point it at their savior; Kaede was close on her heels, along with Takashi and the rest of the group not too far off.

"M-Miyamoto-san, Himoura-san...I'm glad to see you alive...all of you..." Shido added, seeing the rest of the group out of the corner of his eye, too busy to really see if they were all there with coping with the fear and anger of having one of his 'students' turning such a dangerous thing on him.

"Do you know how good I got at soujitsu? It's because I was instructed in the use of the bayonet when I was young" Rei spoke in a deathly calm voice, pressing the tip of the bayonet against Shido's cheek, drawing a drop of blood. "And I learned from my father who had never known failure in the prefectural police!"

At this, one of the remaining male students of Shido's group, Sasaki, started moving for Rei, having enough of the 'traitor' holding their beloved teacher at gunpoint; he was stopped however, as a hole was shot just where his foot would had landed before it hit the ground, making him take a step back. Kaede was responsible for it, holding the WA2000 tightly to his shoulder, pointing it now at Sasaki, giving the silent threat to all of them; make a move, and they'd be dead. This was nearly enough to make Shido's students shit themselves, and with a motion from Shido, Sasaki stepped back in line, so headstrong from Shido's praise of him that he would have charged at Kaede anyways.

"He suffered because of you. He's the kind of person who can take anything, but he was brought to tears and asked for my forgiveness!" Rei continued now with Kaede covering her, and Takashi soon after, holding the Ithaca; even if it wasn't pointed at anyone, and there was no will from the user to kill, it was still intimidating to the other students after seeing how the other two changed, making them only guess how much the others had changed as well. "It was all your fault I was held back a year! And I've known it all along! You were the only one managing the grades!"

This was of course, news to Takashi and Takashi, both looking to Rei in surprise, now understanding why Rei hated Shido so much; Kaede had his own reasons to hate the teacher, but Takashi was clueless. This slight detraction gave Sasaki the chance to try and move, only to have Kaede's gun on him once mare, and a gunshot sounded, making the students jump, Rei and Takashi unflinching from the familiar loud bang; blood trickled down Sasaki's cheek from where the bullet grazed by, and his face contorted into anger, but remained in place, the look on Kaede's face telling him he did it on purpose, putting even more fear from the students into Kaede's marksmanship.

"But I took it! My dad told me if his investigation went well, he could have you and your father arrested...but now..." Rei growled, continuing on and not hesitating in the slightest after Kaede's gunshot, pressing the bayonet knife deeper into Shido's cheek, making him wince and a stead stream of blood to flow down his cheek; it was obvious from his lack of glances to his students that he was in no way concerned with their safety, even after the second gunshot, his eyes and body frozen in undeniable fear as he looked past the knife and down the cold steel barrel of the M1 in Rei's hands.

"A-are you going to become a murderer?" Shido said, the fear showing in his voice and eyes but he tried to act like he wasn't, hoping he could talk Rei out of what her eyes and words were pointing towards. "Do you, the daughter of a police officer, intend to become a criminal?"

"I don't want to hear anything more from you!" Takashi yelled, noticing how much of an effect Shido's words were having, and so did Shido; Rei's hands were shaking, and she looked like she was on the verge of tears, but she made no move to lower or remove the bayonet from Shido's cheek.

"Then kill him!" Souichiro's booming voice sounded out, shocking everyone and causing the 'peace-loving' adults to reel at the blatant encouragement for the 'violent' teenagers to kill such a 'thoughtful and caring' man, and even caused Rei to hesitate just as she was about to lunge; Shido's fear increased as well, the teenager now having _permission _to end his life by the leader. "I know that man's father, however, that means nothing now! If it is what you want, kill him!"

The adults tried protesting against this, but Souichiro's sharp eyes silenced them before they could even get a word out, and his words making them keep silent.

"Of course, if I had reason to, I would do it myself!"

There was now doubt in Rei's eyes which had just been ready to kill Shido just a few moments ago; Takashi tried running to Rei's side, but he found himself stopped, by Saeko.

"Saeko-sa-!"

"...Miyamoto-kun has to make this decision on her own..." Saeko said calmly, holding Takashi back until he figured out it was useless, slumping back at watching, biting his lip.

"Go ahead, kill me!" Shido said, the doubt in Rei's eyes giving him courage, but he was still scared, the M1 still pointed at him, even if the bayonet had left his cheek, and there was still Kaede threatening him, yet he had come to the same understanding as Saeko did, as much as he hated seeing Rei in the state of distress she was in. "Kill me, take my life away! You're free to go down that painful path if you want to so bad! Me being a teacher and you a student, it would be an appropriate learning experience!"

With the group in the background, Rei's hands shook as she held the M1, Shizuka covering Alice's eyes and she could feel everyone's eyes on her. After a moment, she looked back at Shido to see him glaring fearfully at her; Rei's grip on the M1 tightened and steadied, her eyes loosing any uncertainty they held before, and Shido gulped, shutting his eyes tightly, only the gunshot or impalement never came.

Rei lowered her rifle and lowered her eyes before turning from Shido, and walked away.

"...is that what you think?" Souichiro asked, watching Rei as she walked past, everyone giving a sigh of relief, and Kaede lowered his gun, taking a few steps backward with his eyes on the students before turning and walking back toward the group.

"...he's not even worth killing..." Rei muttered, pausing for a second beside Souichiro.

The Don suddenly began laughing heartily at Rei's comment and Shido's anger towards it and as Rei continued on, Kaede soon after.

"Good show, Miyamoto-kun!" Souichiro roared out as Shido seethed in his anger.

"You have no idea what I went through to make it this far...little swine like you should just keep their mouths shut and...!" Shido growled to himself, gritting his teeth in anger after having his life threatened by a _student _for her to only walk away, and for this man, the Don, to be laughing so insultingly after giving her permission to kill him, even saying he would kill him, only if he had a reason...to say the least, be was pissed. "You worthless piece of shit...Himoura too..."

"You. Leave now." Souichiro's laughter suddenly came to a halt, his sharp eyes on Shido; he was surprised to find them on him when he looked up, and only made him that more pissed off; Souichiro's gaze was only on him for a moment, however, further adding insult as the Don obviously didn't take him as much of a threat but just an annoyance, and glared at the students. "You all to. You have already been tainted by this man's dastardly!"

The vassals instantly came to the Don's side, ready to force the group to leave if they did not do so quietly; Souichiro waved his hand off into the distance as he continued.

"You should cleanse yourself of him, but for now..." his voice became cold with no remorse. "We do not have any space for you! Leave here in the bus you came to us in!"

"Do you think that was wrong, Komuro-kun?" Souichiro suddenly asked of Takashi as, in the background, the vassals were 'escorting' one of the female students into the bus after she tried using sex appeal to be allowed to stay, only for it to backfire on her; Takashi turned, a bit surprised at the sudden question, and soon realized he was being asked a question as a fellow leader.

"I...can't say I'm happy about it, but if I were in your place..." Takashi started replying, weighing both sides; on one hand, Shido was an evil person, best off dead as he understood, however, to send of him and his students, even if they would follow his every order, was a bit excessive in most people's opinions. "I don't know what I would have done. Sorry."

"I respect that kind of thought..." Souichiro replied firmly. "But things are not going to change back to how they once were! If you want to stay alive, remember that."

"Yes sir..." Takashi replied with a nod, noticing Kaede with a comforting arm around Rei behind Souichiro; his thoughts wondered on that for awhile since Souichiro seemed done as he walked away without another word.

He didn't feel any soft of jealousy like he did when he saw Rei and Hishashi together, or any other feeling of love towards Rei; just a strong feeling of friendship that could be almost called love. It almost felt...right to see them, like they would be alright together, as a couple or a team, or whatever, like they connected or something. Maybe that was just Takashi getting over Rei, and him knowing Kaede would protect her with his life, no matter what.

Takashi's thoughts were interrupted by Saeko's hand on his shoulder, making him look at her and he felt his heart beat a bit faster; one thing was for sure. He was over Rei, and was falling for Saeko as she was him.

"Come on, Komuro-kun. Yuriko-san says we're late for dinner." Saeko said with a light smile. "Everyone else is already heading in..."

Takashi nodded and followed with Saeko towards the mansion side by side, and Takashi soon felt Saeko's hand on his, her fingers interlacing with his own; he noticed she had taken her gloves off, but he still had his own on. It didn't really matter through, as both of them were enjoying such simple contact, no words having to be exchanged about their developing relationship.

A little too soon the two found themselves entering the dinning room where everyone was already seated, Rei and Kaede sitting beside each other with Alice and Shizuka sitting across from one another, and, oddly, Kouta and Saya sitting together; it looked like even Kouta had no idea how that came to be. The two let their hands part as they sat down together, next to Kaede and Rei, and noticed the table was set in a western style, but there was no food out yet; as soon as Takashi and Saeko were seated, Saya turned in her seat towards the door to the kitchen.

"Alright, we're ready!" Saya yelled out and there was soon bustling in the kitchen.

Shortly afterward, several vassals-turned-waiters walked out with plates of food, setting one in front of each one of the group before returning to the kitchen, grumbling to themselves about having to serve kids like butlers. The group started eating around the same time, and Takashi hardly even noticed the others started around the time he did.

* * *

Several blocks outside of the Takagi mansion's blockade, a micro school bus full with several students and their teacher' chaperone' in this land of the dead came to a stop as the sun set over the horizon. The students looked to their teacher questioningly as he parked the bus in a clearer area so the undead would be unaware of their location after a short while.

That teacher was, of course, Shido Koichi and the students the ones he had infected with his 'religion'. However, at the moment, he had no preaches to give them or anything to say to them; he was fuming, his 'grandmaster' plan ruined by Miyamoto Rei, Himoura Kaede, and he even blamed the rest of them...and he was particularly pissed off at Takagi Souichiro at the moment as well.

"Sensei...?" one of the girls nervously approached their teacher, all of them sensing something wrong with him. "A-are you okay...?"

"Don't worry about me!" Shido snapped out, making the girl jump back in fear; Shido realized this and turned back away from the students. "I'm thinking, so go entertain yourselves!"

With permission from their teacher, the bus soon broke out with sounds of an orgy; normally, Shido would be watching, but he was still at the wheel, gripping it tightly even if they were parked for the night as he tried formulating a plan to get revenge on those who ruined his original run for safety to the Takagi manor...

* * *

When the group had finished eating, Takashi waited for the vassals once again came out to take away their plates before standing and clearing his throat; he was surprised to see everyone turn their attention on him, even though they had just been previously immersed in their own separate conversations.

"Erm, well..." Takashi muttered, a bit thrown off before he recomposed himself enough to continue. "Well...since you guys are insisting on coming with Rei, Kaede and I...I guess I have no option but to let you. But you have no obligation to come with us..."

"Of course there's no obligation; you made that clear earlier when you said it would just be you, Kaede and Rei..." Saya replied with her usual smug look. "We're a group, so we can't be so easily parted. And so, we won't let you three go on ahead without us."

There was a general agreement around the table with heads nodding all around, Takashi sighing with an odd content; as a leader, he was glad to see such unity in the group, however those feelings were new and not yet quite welcome, since Takashi still didn't consider himself the leader, and he as a person wanted the rest of the group, that already knew their parents were safe or had no option to see them, to be safe with someone trustworthy, in this case with the rest of the Takagi family.

"W-well, in that case," Takashi started; again, he was a bit taken back at how quickly everyone's attention was back to him, but no where near as much as before. "We'll rest up for the night, and we'll head out tomorrow morning then. I'll go and talk to Takagi-sama about our change in plans in the morning ..."

Again, the group broke up into their own separate conversations, Kouta and Kaede being the first to leave, saying they would give the guns one last cleaning and fill a few magazines with the ammo given to them by Yuriko earlier, leaving the rest of the group behind as they made their way up to their shared room, the earlier argument having been forgotten.

Shortly after, Shizuka decided to take Alice up as well, seeing as how the young girl was yawning tiredly; Rei left with them, and Saya soon after. Seeing no point in staying in the dining room, Takashi stood from his spot, and began for his room, Saeko following him without a need to ask if her presence was wanted or not.

"You did the right thing, Komuro-kun." Saeko stated softly from behind. "There was a very slim chance of only you three finding your parents and returning with them alone..."

"I just didn't want to put any of you in unnecessary danger..." Takashi replied with a light sigh, yawning tiredly; they had had a long day, and another was already lined up for the next one. "In any case, we need to get some rest, alright?"

Just as Takashi said so, they come to the hall where the doors to both of their rooms resided; Saeko juggled the though of asking to sleep with Takashi, but even with the purest of intentions she was sure Takashi wouldn't allow it yet.

Saeko was already willing to give this man who accepted her everything she could offer, however she held herself back, fearing that she might just scare Takashi away; a more sensible side of her told her to take it slow-ish for romance's sake. Saeko took both into consideration, and bit Takashi a good night, heading into her own room as Takashi went to his.

* * *

The sun rose almost too fast for most of the group, especially for Kaede and Kouta; the two had finally passed out when they had stripped each gun, cleaning and oiling them each to make sure there would be no problems in the immediate future, and filled every empty magazine they had just as a precaution.

For these tired souls, the sun would not have been enough to wake them, only to make them toss and turn away from it's shining light; luckily however, the sun had a helper...

"Kouta-chan! Kae-nii-chan~! Time to wake up~!" Alice's dive-bomb of Kouta not only awoke the gun otaku, but the sound of the said otaku falling out of bed, Alice's giggling, and Saya's laughter from the bedroom door rose Kaede too, who groggily sat up in bed, looking from the tangled mess of sheets to Alice, who was dressed in a new sun dress, and then to Saya standing in the door, wearing a ruffled skirt and white blouse; he and Kouta having fallen asleep in the jumpsuits and t-shirts Matsudo had let them borrow, and were both rather disheveled.

Saya was suddenly silent, before bursting out in laughter once again at the sight of Kaede with a horrible case of bed head, his ponytail having loosened through the night; with the attention suddenly on him, Kaede growled, knowing the purpose of the laughter, and began roughing up his hair into a, hopefully, less ridiculous look.

Rei happened to walk by at this moment, yawning with her own hair a bit messy, but nothing as bad as Kaede's, and wearing nothing but an oversized night shirt and panties Saya let her borrow; interested in the laughter, she peaked into the room and couldn't help giggling herself at the sight of Kaede's hair.

"Jeez, is it always that bad in the morning?" Rei asked, getting her giggles out of control.

"Sometimes..." Kaede muttered, pulling his hair tie out and trying to brush back his hair with his fingers. "I usually have my mom help me out with it in the mornings..."

"I'll help you out!" Rei suddenly chimed, rushing off, making Saya sigh to herself and look sharply at Kouta, who jumped at attention.

"You. Go wash your face; breakfast will be ready soon." Saya said in mach disgust, crossing her arms as Alice hopped off the bed at the mention of breakfast, heading out of the room with her task complete; Saya stepped away as Alice skipped from the room, Kouta following shortly after and fixing his glasses as Rei came back down the hall from her room with a hair brush in her hand, humming happily to herself. "And you; try not to be took long..."

Saya gave Rei a grin that almost made Rei blush and made her wonder how much people knew of the developing relationship between she and Kaede; then again, she was dealing with a genius, something in her mind told her, maybe she just could read the little signs no one else could?

Rei shook her head as Saya and Alice began heading down the hall, Kouta heading towards the bathroom himself, wondering why she should even be making such excuses? Wouldn't it be good to show she and Kaede were a pair? Or maybe it was important to keep it in the dark...?

Rei pushed the thoughts into the back of her head as she came to the doorway to find Kaede sitting on the edge of the bed, staring distantly into the wall, zoning out and almost seeming like he was sleeping with his eyes open and sitting up. Rei light giggle made him jump, and she was on the bed before he could even look back at her.

"So...why do you grow your hair out, Kaede-kun?" Rei asked idly as she positioned herself behind him and carefully began brushing out the knots in his black hair that fell around his shoulder blades; she had never realized how long it really was, or how smooth and shiny it was. "It's not exactly a trend...well, wasn't a trend..."

Rei had a bit of difficultly finding the words to put it, but either way, she wasn't expecting the silence that followed; she was about to apologize when Kaede finally answered her question.

"I let it start growing out when my father died, four years ago." Kaede replied with a light sigh, finally giving up the battle and telling Rei out right. "He had long hair himself, so I guess it would be a reminder of his death."

"I-I see..." Rei gulped a bit surprised at the fact; she always thought it was just his person preference to grow out his hair.

The two once again fell into silence as Rei continued brushing Kaede's hair out as carefully as she could, soon being able to run the brush completely through his hair without any snags, his hair falling tamer but still messy, which was natural for Kaede.

"A simple ponytail come undone to easily though..." Rei muttered, Kaede raising his eye brow at her mumblings. "Is it alright if I braid it?"

"Knock yourself out..." Kaede muttered, passing his single hair tie back to Rei and stiffing a yawn, having had his hair braided many times before by various people, but never being able to do it himself.

Rei giggled lightly to herself when she received permission, separating his hair into three strips which she started braiding without putting it in a ponytail first, since he only had one hair tie, humming and smiling lightly to herself. Once down to the tip, Rei tied it off with the hair tie and let it go, taking a look at her handy work; she had to admit, Kaede looked pretty good with his hair braided.

Rei's smile suddenly faltered as reality seemed to catch up with her once again; they would be leaving the safety of the mansion and heading into the world of the undead once more, the fact not lost on Kaede ether, who sat quietly, letting Rei do her thing with his hair. When she was done, Kaede continued sitting there quietly, not even turning his head to look at her. With a troubled look on her face, Rei leaned forward, hugging Kaede from behind and burying her face into his neck; Kaede tensed for a moment before relaxing as Rei embraced him, waiting for the inevitable questions he wouldn't be able to answer.

"Do you think we'll find our parents...?" Rei asked after a moment of silence; Kaede frowned slightly, letting his bangs shadow his eyes as the question hiding in all of their hearts was voiced.

"I...don't know, Rei." Kaede replied, truthfully, and he felt Rei tense up slightly against his back. "But, if anyone has a better chance at seeing their parents, it would be you, Rei; your father's a police officer, right?"

This relaxed Rei a bit, but Kaede knew it was a fifty fifty chance, especially with Rei's father being in the police; sure he would have weapons available to him most civilians wouldn't, but also he'd probably be one of the first sent to deal with _them, _therefore putting him in danger of being bitten. As much as that was true, Kaede refrained from mentioning it, knowing it wasn't the time nor would it probably ever be to tell Rei such a fact.

"I...can't predict the future, Rei. But, in the here and now, I will protect you...I'll make sure you're safe to see your father again someday." Kaede said firmly, his feelings for Rei having developed to much more than just a crush it had been mere weeks ago.

Again, Rei's tightened her arm around his chest, and this time Kaede turned his head to her; he was slightly surprised to find Rei's lips pressing to his for their second kiss. This time, it wasn't due to the influence of fear and alcohol like back at the house the second night, but was a true kiss where Rei's feelings were conveyed to Kaede, showing they pretty much matched his own; and thus, he kissed her back, matching Rei's feelings for him with his own for her.

The kiss soon became heated, the two not needing anymore reassurance of each others feelings, Rei making the first move and sliding her tongue against Kaede's lip; again, she surprised him with her forward nature and quickly parted his lips, his tongue darting out and brushing against Rei's tongue before sliding into her mouth, tasting her, and nothing but her, there first kiss having been full of the bitter alcohol taste.

Before they ended up going too far, Kaede placed his hand on Rei's, and a few moments later she pulled back, lightly flustered from the kiss, and that was about it for the cause of her blush; Kaede's cheeks were likewise tinted a light pink, and he was slightly out of breath. Rei smiled and giggled lightly at him as Kaede's blush darkened a bit and looked away.

"Look's like you've gotten better self control then last time~" she teased, remembering how Kaede had quickly become erect during the kiss while this time, she guessed he had only stirred slightly in his pants.

"R-regardless..." Kaede cut in, avoiding Rei's gaze and ignoring her teases. "We should had down; everyone else is probably waiting for us by now."

"Oh, right..." Rei muttered, remembering how they were expected to be down for breakfast by now, sliding out from behind Kaede and standing, Kaede looking over in time to see Rei's panties momentarily exposed when she moved.

Rei giggled when Kaede quickly turned his head, knowing why he did and knowing full and well it wasn't completely accidental. Kaede likewise stood after Rei, the traces of his blush fading as Rei started for the door and he following behind.

"I'm going to get dressed, so head down without me, okay?" Rei said over her shoulder as she left for her own room.

Kaede nodded unnecessarily to himself as he left the room as well, shutting the door as an after though and began heading down to the dinning room.

* * *

Takashi once again found himself in the presence of the Don in the staff room of the mansion, standing before the man who was sitting on a couch, a table littered with papers separating them as before, however, Takashi was standing a bit more firmer, not letting on as much as how much the Don's presence intimidated him since he was now representing the whole group.

"What is it that you wished to speak to me about, Komuro-kun?" Souichiro asked in his booming voice, bearing down on the teen with his sharp eyes as usual.

"I've come to inform you of our group's change in plans, sir." Takashi replied, trying to sound equal to Souichiro as leaders; it seemed to be working, since Souichiro only laughed heartily at Takashi's tone, so he continued. "The whole group wants to go, so we are; the rest will be the same as we disguised before."

"I said to do as you like, didn't I?" Souichiro boomed out, leaning back comfortably on the couch. "In that case however, I'll entrust my daughter to you and to Hirano-kun. Make sure you bring her back safely."

* * *

Most of the group was assembled in the dinning room by the time Kaede had gotten down there, save for Rei and Takashi. He took a seat and looked curiously to Saeko, who was fully dressed with the exception of her katanas, and Saya for an explanation to where Takashi was, and they to him for where Rei was at, Saeko seeming to already know about Rei helping him with his hair.

"She's changing." Kaede replied, reading their questioning and, in Saya's case, suggestive glances, filling Saeko's questioning looks and crushing Saya's. "Where's Takashi?"

"He is speaking with Takagi-sama about the change in plans." Saeko replied with a small smile just as Rei walked into the room, dressed in her school uniform with the holsters and everything, sitting next to Kaede; there was no need to repeat the information since Rei had overheard the answer to where he was at.

With Rei seated, the group waited for Takashi to arrive, talking amongst themselves; Kouta and Kaede talking about guns and the WA2000 now in Kaede's possession, Shizuka and Rei talking about Alice, who was listening and adding things where and there about her past, and Saeko continuing her conversation with Saya about koi they started the other day.

Before any of them had realized time had passed, Takashi had returned to the dinning room, giving a sigh of relief at finally being away from the Don's overbearing presence and back with the group; so much in fact, he payed no mind to how silent it suddenly got, all attention on him suddenly. He walked around the table and too the spot next to Saeko without a second thought, everyone watching his every move, more to mess with him than anything else really. Finally noticing the questioning gazes, Takashi looked up at the group.

"Well, we more or less have permission; he said like last time to do what we want, so we'll be leaving soon today...Saya and Kouta, if you can check on the status of the humvee after breakfast...?" Takashi looked towards the two as he spoke, pleased to find them both nodding. "Then Kaede, Rei and I will get to packing then and..."

"Ah! I remembered!" Shizuka suddenly shouted from nowhere, jumping from her seat and scaring the vassals that were bringing out their food like the night before, since the whole group was now seated.

"W-what is it, sensei...?" Takashi asked as Shizuka realized everyone was staring at her oddly.

"I remembered my friend's phone number!" Shizuka cheered out, hugging Alice, who was the closest to her, tightly to her chest in her happiness for remembering such a trivial thing. "I didn't bring my phone or my address book, so I haven't been able to remember it until now~!"

"Friend? The one that had the guns and the humvee?" Kaede asked, bringing back the curiosity as to who this friend was.

"That's the one!" Shizuka said, hugging Alice still as she looked to Kaede, Kouta and, indeed, everyone else perking up to listen to her next part. "She's in a special team of prefectural police...she's part of an S.A.T. So she's probably still alive. If we could get together somehow..."

"That would be amazing!" Kouta cut in, unable to help himself any more at the mentioning of Shinguard's friend being in such a military-police group.

"Mh-hmm! So, Komuro-kun, phone~!" Shizuka chimed, holding her hand out to Takashi, the group already knowing Takashi was the only one with a phone at the moment.

Takashi sighed lightly and reaching into his pocket...to find it empty.

"Ah...I must have left my phone in my room..." Takashi muttered, Kouta and Kaede sighing while Saya rolled her eyes, Rei giggled, and Shizuka whimpered defeatedly. "C-can you wait till after we eat, so I can grab it later?"

"I think so..." Shizuka replied, not having enough faith in her own memory but still tried keeping the phone number fresh in her mind as she turned to her food, most of the other group members having started during their conversation, and joining them.

Kouta was the first to finish, and waited around for Saya to finish as well before the two left, Alice following them to go check on the humvee to make sure it was ready to go. Shortly after, Kaede and Rei finished as well, the two heading off before Takashi to start packing up the guns and ammo for the trip; Shizuka was next to finish, likewise heading up to the rooms to get her medical supplies and any other things they had left behind in the room. With more than half of the group gone, Takashi finished up his food, Saeko waiting for him and following him upstairs, he to grab his cellphone and any other things, and Saeko to retrieve her katanas and whatever else was in the room.

When Takashi was done, he went to help Rei and Kaede pack up and move the ammo and guns down to the garage with the humvee, Kouta, Saya and Alice already waiting around with Matsudo and the humvee ready to go, packed with previsions provided by the mansion's stockpile, and with two tanks of gas, the truck's own tank filled with gas. Before they began packing, Kouta handed Takashi the Ithaca, and Kaede gave Rei the M1, they keeping the AR-10 and WA200 respectively; Kaede had decided to put the M870 away for now, opting for the WA2000 now. Takashi, Kouta and Kaede strapped the guns to their back while Rei had to set hers aside for now.

As the five loaded up the truck with the items, Shizuka came down with her medical bag and a duffel bag, helping with the packing of the humvee. Last to join them was Saeko, armed with her swords as usual. It was then that something crossed Alice's mind.

"Sensei, weren't you going to call someone?" Alice asked, looking up at the nurse, realization flowing over her as everyone paused, looking towards Shizuka.

"Oh, right! Komuro-kun! Phone quick!" Shizuka said, the number popping up in her head; knowing how air-headed Shizuka could be from only being around her for a few days, Takashi quickly reached into his pocket, grabbing his phone and handed it to Shizuka.

"Uhh...let's see...1 is here...2 is there and 3 is here..." Shizuka muttered to herself cheerfully as she looked down at the phone, the most of the group looking at her in slight disbelief.

"Uh, Shizuka-sensei. Should I dial the number for you...?" Kouta finally asked, raising his hand offeringly.

"Don't interrupt me, or I might loose my place" Shizuka said as she dialed on number, then another and another, the group watching in anticipation for the call to actually be made.

* * *

With the start of a new day, the school micro bus became alive as the mostly nude teenagers woke, to find the bus in motion; Shido had woken only a few moments before them and had started off with no real destination anymore, now looking for a safe place to stay or maybe even some more people willing to be 'saved.'

With _they _never resting however, some problems arose; Shido had to make several turns to get away from massive hordes the bus had no hope of running through. He let out a frustrated growl as he was forced to make another quick turn, the students being tossed around at the sudden, unexpected turns; Shido barely noticed they were heading right back for the Takagi manor when something in the distant sky caught it eyes.

Something seemed to be flying high into the air, and it suddenly exploded in a bright light that made Shido turn his eyes away, unintentionally turning the wheel...luckily or unluckily for them, the bus didn't respond to the wheel being jerked. Shido noticed this and tried turning again; nothing happened, and Shido noticed they were heading towards a downhill decline.

Slamming on the breaks, Shido soon found out they didn't work either...

* * *

Shizuka finally got the number dialed, the group listening closing as the line rung, Shizuka quickly pressing the phone to her ear and listening intently. The phone rung for awhile, well past the time anyone else would have hung up; Shizuka was on the verge of doing it herself.

"_Hello?"_

"Ahh, Rika! You're alive?" Shizuka cheered, jumping with joy, literally; Kouta nearly fainting at the sight of Shizuka's breasts bouncing, Takashi and Kaede not helping but taking a glance at her. "Me too, but we've been through an awful lot..."

"_Shizuka! Where are you? My place?"_

"We had to leave there. Oh," Shizuka replied, happy that her friend was still alive and sounding well. "We borrowed some of your weapons and things-"

"_That's fine. Where are you now-!"_

High above in the sky, there was a huge flash of light, something like an explosion; a few short seconds later, thephone gave out with a zap, Shizuka quickly dropping the steaming object in surprise.

* * *

Out on the streets at the barricade around the manor, one of the vassals was working a forklift, closing up the gap in the barricade they had made to let in a few survivors that had passed shortly before, the other vassals taking them to the mansion so it was just he and another vassal.

As the vassal operating the forklift neared with the concrete slab to fill the gap, the forklift jerked to a sudden stop despite his foot pressed on the gas, confusing not only him, but the other vassal, who had no idea what was going on, neither of them seeing the distant flash of light in the sky.

"Hey! Why did you stop!" the other vassal yelled, obviously a superior officer of some sort.

"It's the engine...!" the forklift-operator replied, trying to restart the forklift with no results, only the sound of the engine rolling. "It's not working!"

Further down the street, unseen by the vassals, was a bus speeding down the hill, straight for them.

"I can't believe the engine would stall at a time like this!" Shido yelled out in anger; of course, he didn't believe that was the case to begin with, but he really didn't want to look at any of the other possibilities. "What is going on here!"

"S-sensei! Look out!" one of the students yelled, having looked out the front window while Shido was turning the key, trying to get the bus to start to no avail; Shido looked up with his student's warning to find them headed straight for the mansion's barricade and a forklift. "Look out!"

The two vassals finally looked up to see the bus speeding straight for them, hardly having time to register what was happening, let alone get out of the way; the crash echoed for near miles thanks to the silent area. The out come of the crash left the gap even wider than before, the forklift tipped over, with both vassals dead and several of the students as well.

Shido had been temperamentally knocked out against the wheel; when he came to, he was greeted by the sound of groaning and shuffling feet as _they _walked around he bus and into the barricades.

* * *

"W-what happened?" Shizuka asked, picking up the phone carefully, the screen black; Shizuka looked apologetically to Takashi, but he and everyone else had something else to worry about.

The sounds of a major crash echoed through the compounds, and a few moments later, Souichiro with Yuriko and a few other vassals exited the mansion as Shizuka started apologizing for the phone, not knowing how it happened so Takashi easily forgave her, none knowing of the doom limping towards them at that very moment.

"I wonder what's going on..." Saya muttered with concern as she listened to what was going on with her group, then looked around, listening to the yells and panicked conversations that had suddenly broken out around the same time as the phone died out; a vassal trying to start one of the vans was telling another vassal the van wasn't starting, something wrong with the starter engine, and a survivor yelling for help, her husband's Pacemaker suddenly stopping. "How could all this happen at once...?"

"What's wrong, Saya?" Kouta asked from a kneeling combat position, sensing danger and getting ready for the worst.

"None of your business! You stay there!" Saya bit out as she began heading over to Rei who, seeing Kaede and Kouta tense up with their guns now in their hands, picked up her own rifle and attached it to it's hostler. "Miyamoto, try aiming with your gun's dot sight."

"What? Why?" Rei asked with confusion, Kaede's eyes suddenly on them.

"Never mind why, just do it!" Saya bit, and Rei raised the gun up to peer through the sight. "Well? Can you see it?"

"Let's see..." Rei muttered, unintentionally pointing the gun in Saya's direction, who hurriedly moved out of the way; Rei was surprised to not see the little red dot in the center of the sight. "No, I can't..."

This seemed to worry Saya greatly and anger Kaede oddly.

"Papa! We need to change our plans!" Saya yelled across the grounds to her father. "This is probably-!"

"_They're _coming!" a vassal yelled as he made a mad dash for the open gate of the mansion, drawing the attention of everyone in the courtyard to him. "Don't come this way!"

Just as the man made it to the gate, bloody arms caught up with him, and cold hands pulled him down as several of _them _he had been running from pulled him down, blood splattering on the ground when they started eating the screaming man.

"Close the gates quickly!" Souichiro roared over the panic starting among the survivors. "Defense units, assemble! Do not let any of the dead inside!"

Almost instantly vassals armed with katanas or Howa Type 89s or other various Japanese made weapons began forming, others running to the armory to arm themselves. One of the vassals, the one holding the key to the gates, protested momentarily though.

"D-Don! Are we just going to abandon the people who are still out there!" he yelled; the Don didn't even turn to crush his protests.

"If we do not do it now, we will loose everything inside the mansion's walls!" Souichiro yelled back, drawing his sword as the undead began flowing towards the open gates in massive numbers; it almost seemed like they had been waiting for a chance to attack. "Do it!"

Reluctantly, but also seeing the approaching threats, the vassal pulled out the electronic remote and pressed the button to close the gates. However, nothing happened; the vassal pressed it several more times to no avail.

"The remote's broken at a time like this!" the vassal cried out, pressing the button several more times before throwing the useless plastic aside. "Someone close the gates!"

The vassals closest to the gates quickly jumped into action, pushing the gates closed before _they _could get in; however, _they _had gotten there just as the gates were closing, and stopped the two gates from meeting. Bloodied arms struggled against the gates, and several more vassals came to help, but not before one of the undead slipped through the gap in the gates, forcing _it's _shoulders to break in the process.

"One of _them_ got through!" one of the vassals yelled as he and the rest of the vassal finally forced the gates closed, severing several arms to do so.

The one who had gotten into the gates, stumbling forward; everyone held their breaths, save for a survivor that had argued the most with Saya the day before when she, Takashi and Kouta had gone to the camps, began shouting at the nearest one with a gun, which happened to be Kouta himself.

"Wh-why are you just sitting there! You have a gun, so hurry up and kill him!" she yelled hysterically at the kneeling teen; she was surprised to find he already had the rifle to his shoulder and was aiming through the scope.

"I have one..." Kouta said in a singsong voice as he lined up a shot, and fired. "...in my pocket~"

The zombie's head exploded in gore as the bullet ripped _it's _skull apart, the force of the bullet sending _it _flying against the gate; one of the vassals, which was actually the one who had tried taking the guns from Kouta the day before, looked in disbelief at the teenager.

"Sorry buddy! I was wrong about you...!" he said to Kouta, who gave him the thumbs up and grinned evilly.

"I'm the baddest mother fucker around!" Kouta said confidently; a series of shots following his, however, made others wonder.

"Yeah, for about a meter..." Kaede added, as he fired several shots, killing three of the undead, that had been reaching through the gates to grab the vassal, with three well placed head shots; competitive sparks flew between the two gunmen, and they were near starting another marksman match like they had before, but they were interrupted by the sound of fabric ripping.

Kouta and Kaede looked over to the source of the ripping to see Yuriko, who had ripped the side of her dress higher up her thigh after tossing aside the scarf that was resting on her shoulder; the sight surprised Saya, who quickly threw her arm out to block Kouta's vision, Kaede quickly looked away, and Takashi was at a loss of what to do with such a sight before him, but he was reminded that it was one of his childhood friends' moms by Saya's gasp of "Mama!"

Yuriko paid the teens no mind jest yet, arming herself with the CZE Vz83 and FN Browning M1910 that a vassal had brought out to her; turning to her husband, holding out a Luger P08 with a attachable stock and a drum magazine.

"I'm ready." she spoke in her calm, polite tone. "Are you, Souichiro-san?"

"Yes, I am!" Souichiro replied, looking over his shoulder to Yuriko, then faced forward again, away from the gun. "But I...have no need for a gun."

"Yes dear" Yuriko said, lowering the gun and, with no hesitation, turned to Saya, offering the gun to her. "You use it then, Saya-chan."

"A-A Luger P08! With a stock and drum magazine too..." Kouta said, dreamily from behind Saya as she took the gun, even if she didn't know how to use such a thing to begin with.

"I don't know how to use this in the first place!" Saya reminded her mother, who only smiled. "And, on top of that, why do you have a gun yourself!"

"Back when I was working on Wall Street, I took a self defense course for executives. I might even be a better shot than your father here~" Yuriko replied, oblivious to the looks the younger group was giving her as Takashi, Rei, and even Saeko imagined Yuriko in some sort of detective get-up; her eye turned on to Kouta, who stood up straight under he gaze. "Could you teach her how to shoot, Hirano-kun?"

"Y-y-yes, yes, yes!" Kouta said, excitedly for being asked to teach Saya how to shoot.

The sounds of the gates creaking as _they _tried breaking in, knowing there was living meat on the other side, brought the group back to their current situation. Takashi, remembering his phone, looked towards Saya to ask about it as Kaede went over to Rei; after a moment, Kaede walked towards the garage with the M1, leaving Rei with the WA2000 just in case, which she held a bit awkwardly because of the bullpup design.

"...so why did the cellphones and cars just suddenly break down?" Takashi asked; the question wasn't aimed at anyone in particular, but Saya knew she was the one expected to answer, since she was the only one that knew why. "It happened right after that light in the sky..."

"It was an E.M.P blast!"

Almost like a routine, the group looked to Saya for a further explanation.

"It was a H.A.N.E...a High-Altitude Nuclear Explosion." Saya elaborated before continuing her explanation. "If a nuclear missile detonates high enough, gamma rays overload the air molecules with electrons, causing what is known as Compton Scattering. The high-speed electrons are caught in the Earth's magnetic field, and are discharged over a large radius, causing an Electromagnetic Pulse; it's fatal to electronic equipment! The Electromagnetic Pulse goes through antenna and burns out the integrated circuits. "

"So, in other words, now we..." Saeko started, the weight of the situation falling on them now.

"Right. We can't use any electronic equipment now!" Saya replied with a nod.

"What!" Rei gasped, now fully understanding what was happening. "So cellphones and stuff don't work anymore!"

"Everything from cellphones to computers are totally useless now, and same with automobiles that use electronics; they won't move anymore. And the power plants are most likely dead as well." Saya continued. "If actions had been taken to counter E.M.P.'s then it would be different, but...I think only a small part of the Self-Defense Force and the government are made for that...nor do I think they were expecting such a thing to happen."

"Is there a way to fix the broken equipment?" Souichiro asked, naturally taking an interest since it affected him and his own group of survivors.

"If we replaced the fried parts, then we may be able to get the cars working again, but there isn't a chance with the other things..." Saya said with a frown. "There's also a possibility that some cars weren't affected, especially older car models, and others that aren't intergraded with micro-chips and stuff like that."

"Look into that as soon as possible!" Souichiro suddenly addressed a vassal standing near by, who replied with a "Yes, sir!" as the Don turned back to his daughter. "Saya!"

"W-what is it?" Saya asked, jumping slightly at her name suddenly being called like that, and looking up at her father.

"You have managed to keep your head even in this chaos. I commend you!" Souichiro spoke, his voice not softening in the least, yet it still had plenty of an impact on Saya; the Don walked past his shocked daughter as the rattling of the gates became louder as the undead outside of it became even more restless, going as far as trying to squeeze through the bars, succeeding in loosening the gate's rails.

"Th-there's too many!"

"The gate won't hold!"

The vassals at the gates were trying their best to keep the gates from collapsing, but there was just too many of _them_ for the gate to hold off; with a loud crash, _they _were finally able to knock the gates over, much to everyone's horror.

"Run away! Don! Run away!" the vassals yelled as they were quickly over come by the swarm of undead that flowed into the compound now that the gate was out of the way.

The first to be hit was the survivor's camps due to their panicked screaming and the fear brought by _them _approaching, which only drew more screams and more undead. As the camps were overrun, _they _began wandering the grounds, vassals facing them head on and bringing _them _into a frenzy of violence and killing

"Honey..." Yuriko muttered needlessly as the Defense Units were waiting for his orders to start pushing the undead out.

"Papa, we should get into the house-" Saya started, knowing it was useless to try and take so many of _them _on, since the noise would only attract more, but Souichiro cut her off.

"Our current goal is to defend ourselves! _They _broke down the metal gates." Souichiro boomed out. "Even if we went into the house, _they _would break in and w would be eaten there!"

"Takagi-sama!" a vassal yelled as he ran to the Don, a rifle in his hands and important news; Souichiro nodded, and that was all the vassal needed to start conveying the information. "I saw from the second floor that the people at the neighboring houses have not yet been attacked! It may be possible to reclaim the gate!"

With this information, Souichiro turned to the Defense units of the mansion, as well as the survivors that had escaped the camps while the undead hordes were busy with the other, less smart survivors; the said horde was now starting to advance on them.

"Our targets are _those_ that have broken through!" Souichiro's voice boomed over the groaning of _them _and the dieing screams of the more unlucky survivors. "Men who can fight, prepare yourselves! Women and children who want to survive, get in back!"

At this time, Kaede came running back out with the M1 in his hands; he had gone to change out the scope for Rei's usage, and, once back with the group, traded Rei again before looking to Takashi, as did the rest of his group, for their next move. Just as Takashi was about to tell them to assist riding the grounds of the undead, Souichiro addressed him.

"You have your own mission, do you not, Komuro-kun!" he said, his back to Takashi and the others. "It is time you went on your way!"

"...yes, sir." Takashi said reluctantly; despite their numbers, Takashi wasn't sure if they would be able to deal with so many of _them, _but it was true.

They had their own mission to attend to.

"Hirano-kun." the Don's attention was turned to Kouta, he still not facing them yet. "...I am entrusting my daughter to you."

Kouta nodded firmly, having one of the rare moments where he was able to stand up to Souichiro's words; Saya was quickly catching on, even if she didn't want to.

"Papa! What the hell do you mean by that!" Saya yelled with a light panic in her voice; the sound of a slap quickly followed, and Saya looked up in shock at her mother, holding her cheek. "M-Mama...?"

"Souichiro-san and I have a role to play, Saya-chan. Having you in the care of Hirano-kun, Komuro-kun, and the others is the one thing we as your parents want for you!" Yuriko spoke, pain hidden deep in her voice for having to explain this to her daughter. "Don't think for a second that this doesn't kill us inside to do this! Please don't make us suffer any more! Just go!"

"Auntie..." Alice spoke softly; as a child, she could tell when someone close was in pain, and didn't like it.

"You're a good girl, Alice-chan..." Yuriko said, kneeling down to her level and hugging her. "Auntie's daughter is a good girl, too. Listen to your brothers and sisters, alright?"

"Papa! Mama!" Saya yelled out, holding back her tears from having to part with her parents, possibly even permanently now; she turned away from the two, and started towards the garage where the humvee was. "I love you!"

Yuriko smiled sadly to her daughter as she made her way to the garage, and Takashi could almost swear he saw the edges of a smile on Souichiro's face as well before he turned to go after Saya, the rest of the group likewise heading towards the garage with them.

"Throw the dynamite!" Souichiro yelled, his vassals jumping into action at his commands, throwing several sticks of explosives into the hordes of undead, putting holes into the sea of _them _filling the courtyard, other vassals readying themselves for battle.

The group of teenagers neared the garage to find Matsudo working under the hood of the humvee, and their hearts sank slightly, hoping that the humvee was one of the lucky vehicles that were still operational; the technician stepped back and closed the hood, seeing them approaching. Figuring out their fears, Matsudo gave them the thumbs up, and Takashi let out a relieved sigh as the group started working to finish packing up the humvee, never having been able to fully finish earlier.

"You guys are good to go; this is a military vehicle, and one that has had anti-E.M.P. measures added." Matsudo spoke to Takashi mostly. "You guys were lucky, since not a whole lot of even military vehicles have them."

"What are you going to do next, Matsudo-san?" Takashi asked, almost already able to guess his answer from the other vassal's will to fight with the Don.

"The woman I love is out there with everyone else, so it should be obvious." Matsudo said, picking up a heavy wrench as the group began loading themselves into the humvee. "Good luck, all of you."

"You too, Matsudo-san. Thanks for everything you've done for us." Takashi said with a light bow as he turned and walked to the humvee, Matsudo going the opposite way to join the rest of the group fighting against _them. _

"Matsudo-san!" Kaede called out, bringing the mechanic's attention to where Kaede stood, next to one of the ATVs they were planning to use when it was just he, Rei and Takashi. "Do these things still work?"

"They should, actually. Why?" Matsudo replied, but got no answer, so he continued on; Takashi took up where he left off, watching as Kaede grabbed a tanks of gasoline and, after some searching, found a flare in one of the tool boxes.

"What are you doing, Kaede?" he yelled, half in the humvee while he watched him.

"There's just too many of _them _for Takagi-sama to take care of!" Kaede yelled back as he pulled the tanks along with him to the ATV. "Remember back to the first night; _they _are weak against fire!"

The indecent Kaede mentioned flashed into most of their minds, save for Alice since she wasn't with them then, when the other bus had crashed, separating him and Rei from them and where the zombies who had been set ablaze from the crash died rather quickly.

"You guys make a path with the humvee, and I'll light the bastards up!" Kaede said as he lifted the tank onto the rack on the back of the ATV; before Takashi could stop her, Rei had slid out of the humvee through the gap made by him and the open door.

"I'm going with you then!" Rei said demandingly and rushed over to Kaede; stopping him before he could protest. "You won't be able to drive and dump the gas at the same time, right?"

Reluctantly, Kaede nodded and Takashi had no choice but to go along with it; it was quite a plan, since he too knew _their _numbers were just too great for Souichiro, his vassals and the few survivors left alive. Takashi slid into the humvee besides Saeko, Kouta ready to stand out of the porthole, and Shizuka at the wheel, their eyes all on him.

"We're clearing a path for Kaede and Rei, then we're getting the hell out of here!" Takashi said; they didn't need anymore from Takashi, Saya nodding in agreement as Shizuka started up the humvee and Kouta cheering at the plan.

Takashi made a sideways glance at Saeko, and got a small nod from her; he let out a light sigh as the humvee pulled out, Kaede pulling away from the driveway for the humvee with Rei sitting behind him on the ATV, and readied himself, as did the others who weren't waiting for something else, as Shizuka whipped the humvee around to face the horde of undead being met by the Takagi family vassals.

Once outside the garage, Kouta stood out from the porthole, looking behind them to see Kaede pull up a few meters behind the humvee and gave him the thumbs to to go.

"He's ready whenever you are, Shizuka-sensei." Kouta said, ducking down to relay the information to the driver; Shizuka looked back to Takashi, who nodded, and revved the engine, shifting gears before speeding forward into the crowed of undead.

Luckily, the horde wasn't too dense thanks to the efforts of the vassals, so it was easy to knock out a path for Kaede and Rei to follow; it wasn't until they were a good way away from the garage that Kaede gave the word for Rei to start pouring out the gas, Kaede purposely driving so that it would be poured on _they _that had been knocked over by the humvee. With Kouta relaying the directions for the humvee to go for the maximum spread of the fire, the two vehicles twisted around the courtyard; the vassals watched, wondering what they were doing, when they could, but they had more important things to worry about.

"We're starting to run low, Kaede!" Rei finally yelled to Kaede, the tank almost empty now; Kaede motioned with one hand to Kouta to start heading for the gate now, which was relayed to Shizuka, and Kaede started following them.

"Alright, when we run out, pop the flare and toss it as close to the gas as you can!" Kaede yelled, passing the flare back to Rei, who took it with her free hand.

The humvee mowed down the undead, sending bodies and blood flying as it made it's way to the open gates; behind them, the ATV with Kaede and Rei followed closely, the gasoline running out just as they passed through the gates. Hearing the sound of the tank hitting the ground and being left behind, Kaede slowed down a bit to give Rei a better chance with the flare. The hissing of the flame starting made Kaede look back, and watch as the flare flew through the air, Rei holding her breath.

The flare hit it mark, and the gas was quickly ignited, setting _them _on fire all throughout the courtyard; _those _who caught fire quickly set fire to others, and as they started dropping slowly, the cheers of the vassals could be heard just before Kaede gunned the ATV to catch back up with the humvee, which was fast approaching an obstacle...

"There! That's the only way out!" Saya yelled, pointing ahead to where the bus had crashed into the barricade that had started this whole thing.

"I-it's a little narrow, don't you think!" Shizuka replied fearfully.

"Just go through it!" Saya yelled, pointing onwards, and Shizuka hardly had anytime to argue; the teenagers readied for impact as the humvee scrapped against the side of the bus, and slammed into the concrete slab, sending it sliding out of the way and seriously damaging the side of the humvee that it hit.

Luckily, the humvee broke through and was still working, and they drove through; Kouta confirmed that Kaede and Rei had followed them out safely, and that _they _were dropping like flies back in the compound. They settled down a bit inside the humvee, Kouta a bit concerned over the damage to the humvee, but it was fine, for now...

"So, what do we do now?" the present group members asked in unison, looking to their leader Takashi.

."...Rei, Kaede and I need to find our parents first!" Takashi answered after some hesitation. "We'll check our houses first, Higashi police station, and Shintoko Elementary school third! At this rate, it won't even take us two hours!"

The group nodded at the plan, having already known the three's parents were first priority for them now.

"After that, we'll look for your friend as well, sensei." Takashi added, making Shizuka look back at him happily, having not expected such a thing to be offered; Takashi grinned back at her before there were cried of disapproval from Shizuka looking away from the road, causing her to look forward and correct the humvee's course before they crashed. "Uh, first things first though; we need to find a place to stop and let Kaede and Rei in..."

At that moment, Saeko noticed something up ahead, clear of _them, _or so it seemed.

"There's the highway!" Saeko said, pointing forward as they approached the mentioned area; as far as they could tell, it was free of any of the undead, and Shizuka sped up a bit to get there faster.

They were wrong. Dead wrong...

**Chapter 9, end.**

**Authors notes: Sorry everyone for the long wait...had a bit of writer's block. Hopefully I'm back for good, and I'll be uploading another story soon, though the character designs for that one may take awhile...artists block's to blame for that one...**


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's notes: As you'll be able to tell, I'm gonna do the police station first, then the mall, so this is the chapter where things really start happening differently than in the manga.**

**Chapter 10: The DEAD Gangs**

With the humvee parked and the ATV pulled up besides it, most of the group stood outside of the vehicle, looking down the strip of road that was one of the major highways of Tokonosu; the previously hoped empty street littered with _them _as far as the eye could see, along with several crashes and abandoned cars.

To top it all off, smoke was rising from the wrecked side of the humvee, and the stop having been caused by the engine sputtering earlier; it didn't look like the humvee would tolerate mowing down anymore walking corpses, and they hoped it would at least run until they were able to find a decent, working form of transportation.

"So, what are we going to do now, Takashi?" Kouta asked, looking over to Takashi and away from the highway he had been peering at from the scope of his gun. "I don't think the humvee will last much longer if we keep using it like we were..."

"I..." Takashi stopped himself, and turned to Shizuka, who was sitting in the drivers side of the humvee with the window rolled down; Alice was still inside with her, and the rest of the group was outside. "Sensei...do you think you can drive more carefully? I know you're not the best when it comes to vehicles like that..."

Luckily, Shizuka took it in the best of ways, but she still shook her head slightly.

"I'll try, Komuro-kun. But with as crowded as the highway is, I don't think I can avoid _them _and the other cars..." Shizuka said apologetically, and looking over to the horde approaching them from the sounds of the vehicles stopping, and no doubt _they_ were coming from behind as well.

"Whatever we do, we better do it fast." Saya added, thinking along those line that they would soon be trapped at both sides.

"If we take one of those factors out, you'll be able to drive better, right, Shizuka-sensei?" Kaede suddenly asked; Saya caught on instantly, and Takashi took a moment, putting it together with the fact that Kaede looked back to the ATV.

"Yeah, I guess so..." Shizuka replied, looking towards him, then to Takashi as he spoke.

"No. Before was different; you were right behind us. I don't want us separated so often like this." Takashi said, firmly as he could, even though, deep down, he knew it was their best chance to advance without wreaking their transportation.

"Don't worry; I'll meet you guys at the Higashi police station later, around noon today, no later than one o'clock." Kaede said with a yawn. "I can take care of myself, and it's just one person, if something goes wrong. Plus it's the best way to not wreak the humvee, which we need right now, right?"

Of course, at the mentioning of something going wrong made Takashi not want to agree even more and before he could, with the condition that Kaede make it there safe, Rei stepped up to Kaede.

"I'm going with you then." Rei said, indefinitely and firmly, then she smiled at Kaede. "You need someone to look after you to make sure you get back safely."

Takashi was silent for a moment, weighing the options in his mind; he didn't want Rei going, nor Kaede to begin with, but it wasn't like they had any other choice if they wanted to advance, and going back was out of the question. Soon, Takashi could feel everyone's eyes on him, and he let out a frustrated sigh.

"Fine. You two can go; we'll set out as soon as _they _follow you and the was is clear." Takashi said, finally making up his mind. "But you two better make it to the station safe, got it?"

"Naturally" Kaede replied with a light grin towards the leader before looking to Rei and started for the ATV.

Takashi tried no to think if his decision was right or wrong as her turned, motioning the rest of the group to pile back into the humvee; the sound of the ATV starting up made Takashi pause and look back, watching at Kaede drove off with Rei sitting behind him, holding on tightly.

"Make it there safely you two..." he whispered to them as they drove down the highway, _they _that had been approaching them quickly turned to chase after the noise as it passed them.

* * *

After driving down the highway to get the attention of as many of _them _as they could, Kaede had taken the closest off ramp, with the accumulated horde of walking corpses chasing after them to lead them as far away from the group as they could.

Kaede pulled the ATV into a small parking lot between two apartment complexes, and turned to look with Rei at how many of _them _they had gotten to follow them; they were quite surprise to see the street behind them full of undead, hobbling towards them.

"Maybe we got too many of them...?" Rei muttered sarcastically at the number of the undead they got to follow them. "Jeez...was there really this many on the highway?"

"Well, we are probably the thing making any noise for a few kilometers, thanks to that E.M.P. blast..." Kaede replied, absentmindedly looking up to the sky for a moment before looking back down at _them _as they started getting a little too close. "It's about time we get moving..."

"Y-yeah..." Rei nodded, sitting back down and taking hold of Kaede again as he revved the ATV, and sped off between the apartments, going up and over a curb to get back onto a street, _them _following them tirelessly.

Being on the road again wasn't so great however, more of _them _already crowding the streets Kaede had hoped to make a getaway on. With a low growl, he made a sharp turn into a park, it being the closest place that seemed clear of _them. _

"A park?" Rei asked, looking at Kaede oddly as he turned the ATV towards the park.

"I've got a plan...sorta." Kaede replied, looking over his shoulder at Rei momentarily, before looking forward again, the fountain in the center of the park coming into view; without warning, Kaede suddenly pulled the ATV to a stop, and turned slightly to Rei again. "Get off!"

"W-what?" Rei gasped back.

"Just do it Rei!" Kaede bit back impatiently.

Putting her trust in Kaede, Rei jumped from the ATV, bashing one of _their _skulls in with the butt of her gun as Kaede sped off again. Driving around the fountain once, he gathered _their _attention before accelerating, pulling the ATV into a wheelie, and hopped up into the circular fountain.

He worked quickly, unhooking a bungee cord from the crate on the back of the ATV as he circled the inside of the fountain, and wrapped it around the accelerator of the bike, hooking the other end to the bike so it would continue on it's course around the fountain.

Not caring one bit at how wet he was, Kaede jumped off the ATV and away from the fountain, the noise of the ATV distracting _them _completely as he rushed back for Rei; using what he had learned back at the school, the time there during the Outbreak seeming so very long ago now, he simply shoved _them _aside as he made his way, not lingering around long enough for _them _to grab him.

"Let's move; don't shoot unless you really need to." Kaede said, just above a whisper but just enough for Rei to hear him as he grabbed her hand, and pulled her along quickly.

Fortunately, they were able to move away from the fountain before it got too crowded with _them, _pushing or knocking away any of _them _that got in their way with the stocks of their guns; Kaede and Rei were making progress out of the undead-infested park with the ATV distracting _them _from the two, however, Rei was stopped dead in her tracks, a look of horror on her face.

She was facing a small group of much shorter undead, who were once children when _they _were living, the sight of the once children with parts of _their _bodies torn and bloodied, made her freeze up long enough for _them _to get uncomfortably close to her.

"Rei!" Kaede bit out a warning, one of the small undead spreading _it's _jaws wide and lunged for Rei; before _it _could bite Rei however, Kaede stepped in, pulling Rei back out of it's reach and slamming the barrel of his WA2000 into _it's _mouth.

Pulling the trigger, Kaede hesitated a moment as _it's _smaller head exploded with blood and bits of bone before re-gaining himself, and pulled Rei with him before _they w_ere attracted to them by the gunshot; they ran as hard as they could from the park, leaving behind the massive horde surrounding the fountain and easily loosing the few undead that tried going after them for the gunshot.

Once on the city streets again, the two relaxed slightly, stopping near a car to rest since the streets were literally empty of _them, they _being attracted to the fountain for long ways in every direction.

"That should distract _them _for awhile..." Kaede muttered, looking down at Rei, who had slumped to the ground at the car's door, while he leaned against the side to catch his breath. "Rei...will you be okay? We more than likely will be facing more of _them _like that..."

"I...I'll be fine. It just surprised me, that's all..." Rei replied, faking a smile for Kaede; they both knew there was more to it than that, it becoming increasingly hard on Rei to keep dealing with _them _when they looked human, but Kaede didn't push the matter. "I'm...still trying to get use to the fact that_ they_ aren't human anymore..."

Kaede nodded slowly, looking away from Rei for a moment, checking out the surrounding area, not seeing anything moving for a distance.

"We should get moving again, Rei." Kaede said, softly; Rei nodded and pushed herself up with the M1 in her hands. "I don't know the area very well, so..."

"Don't worry; I know how to get there from anywhere in the city" Rei said with confidence for getting to her father's place of work. "Just follow me, Kaede~!"

Kaede nodded at Rei, motioning her to start leading and took a look behind them, making sure they wouldn't be snuck up on by any of _them _while they moved on before following Rei, keeping a cautious eye out; _they _may be distracted by the ATV in the park, which even he could still hear faintly, but that didn't mean they could let their guard down.

This was one of the first times in his life Kaede was truly grateful for his late father's teachings about war tactics and combat situations that kept him on his toes while Rei kept alert as well as she could, having been a normal high school student only a few days before, thrown into this world of the walking dead.

Kaede was glad at how well not only how Rei was adapting life after the Outbreak, but the rest of the group as well, all of them keeping a relatively cool head during the ordeal so far; he tried keeping the thoughts of how long it would take before one of them actually snapped in the back of his mind the best he could, and instead put it to other things, like how many rounds he had left in the magazine of his gun as they walked.

Rei suddenly paused mid step, making Kaede stop as well and look up at her questioningly; she was still for a second, and Kaede's grip on his WA2000 tightened momentarily as he looked past Rei, seeing nothing even looking closely.

"What is it, Rei?" he asked, and Rei looked back at him with a light smile.

"Nothing. I...I thought I saw someone...it was probably just one of _them _walking around." Rei replied, hesitating a moment before pointing over to a public garage. "Over there. But I don't see anything anymore."

"Well, better safe then sorry, neh?" Kaede replied, figuring it was just one of _them, _but he still kept in mind there may be other survivors around, and some may be like the one they had run into at the gas station that first night...

Kaede raised his gun and looked through the scope, magnifying it to see the distant garage better. He was still for a moment, now cautious since he didn't see anything, not even one of _them _walking by one of the windows; Kaede was watching the building for a good few minutes, Rei shifting slightly where she stood.

"See anything?" she asked, getting a bit concerned herself. "I could have been seeing things, Kaede..."

"It's possible..." Kaede replied, finally lowering his gun. "But, if you did, it's gone now. Just keep on your toes, alright Rei?"

"Yeah..." Rei nodded in response, noticing how much Kaede was on guard after she mentioned seeing something; she herself tried labeling it off as one of _them _lurking in the garage, too stupid to get out and investigate the distant sound of the ATV, but she couldn't stop the doubts that wandered in her mind.

Rei faced forward again and lead the way once more, Kaede following just a few short steps behind as they made there way to the Higashi police station to meet up with the rest of the group; Kaede could already guess they would be later than they had planned, and looked up towards the sun.

He wasn't the best at determining the time from the sun's position, but it was something he was somewhat familiar with, and with no other way of telling time since the EMP blast, he made a broad guess that it was either nearing or it was already past noon, making it a fact that they would be later than expected.

"Ah, by the way, nice thinking back at the park" Rei commented, smiling over her shoulder at Kaede. "That sure distracted _them _for awhile."

"Yeah, and the noise'll last until the ATV's outta gas too, so it'll attract _them _for awhile." Kaede replied in a low voice; there may not have been any of _them _around to hear them, but he still didn't want to take any chances. "So we should be safe from _them _for awhile."

Kaede, who was looking towards the garage Rei had seen something, or someone, inside of, looking back to Rei, who had, in turn, turned her head sideways to look at him as well; there eyes never met however, as Rei looked right past him, suddenly whipping around as she tried raising her gun quickly, and Kaede heard fast approaching footsteps, defiantly not those of one of the undead.

Kaede's head suddenly burst in a sharp, numbing pain, his body dropping as his vision faltered, feeling the undoubtable warmth of blood running down the back of his head; just as Kaede's vision turned black, he saw several men surround and easily over power Rei, and disarm her.

* * *

Takashi looked through the mainly glass entrance of the Higashi police station, where he could see the banged up humvee where they had parked it, and a few of _them _still limping around. He then turned his attention to the clock on the wall, that was still oddly working; Saya had explained that it was battery operated, and since it wasn't a digital clock, there were no components to be fried by the EMP blast.

He really would have rather it not worked, reading it; 5:43 PM, four hours after Kaede and Rei were suppose to be there. They themselves arrived around noon, waiting an hour before starting to search for anyone in the areas they searched; they found the station empty, save for a few of _them, _that they dispatched and were able to score a some ammo off of, but that was about it, since the guns were either unusable or couldn't be found.

Kouta caught Takashi's eye with a frown before the otaku walked over to him with the new rifle held loosely in his hands, the AR-10 strapped across his back for now.

"Should we go out and look for them, Takashi?" Kouta asked in a low voice, looking over to where Shizuka was keeping Alice occupied, and her mind off of the two missing members. "We can't stay here forever, waiting for them; if shit hits the fan, _they _could easily break in through the front, and we don't know the lay out of the building very well, so we'd end up getting lost. At least, going out and looking for them would get us out of here; Miyamoto-san's father wasn't here at all..."

Takashi was silent for awhile, thinking to himself; he didn't want to leave just yet, since they might find clues as to where Rei's father was, if he was even alive, from his office, but only Rei knew where his office was, and he knew if they left, it wouldn't be a good idea to return if they found the two.

Takashi shook his head, resting it against his hand; he really didn't want to assume the worst case scenario, but as a leader, her couldn't rule it out and put everyone else in danger waiting for someone who may be dead, or worse...

"We'll wait here..." Takashi said softly, looking up at Kouta, "...for the rest of today; we'll leave noon tomorrow, and look for Kaede and Rei, if they haven't arrived before we leave..."

He added the second part a bit louder, so Saeko, who was standing nearby, and Saya heard as well. Neither Saeko nor Kouta asked any further questions of their leader, both telling it was hard for him to make such a decision, and neither wanting to make him make a decision on leaving them both behind before it was really necessary to do so.

Knowing that he may have to make such a decision rested heavily in Takashi's stomach, especially if they did, and the two were actually alive; he would wait until the last possible moment before making a decision like that. With that in his mind, Takashi stood after a moment, from where he was sitting on the main desk, and picked up the Ithaca.

"Kouta and I will got through the station again, to look for some food. Hopefully there is some around here...Saeko-san, look after everyone else while we're gone, okay?" Takashi said, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Kouta had gone to retrieve his school uniform, probably planning to change before Takashi made his order, and Saeko nodded; he looked over to Kouta and nodded. "Go ahead; when we're done, we'll start searching."

Again, Takashi looked over to the entrance way and out onto the street, hoping to see Kaede and Rei roll up on the ATV with a story of a long detour they needed to take to avoid _them,_ but all he saw was the undead, and when the two would finally join with the rest of the group, they'd have more than just a story about a detour to tell about...

* * *

Kaede finally came to with a splitting pain in the back of his head that made him reluctant to move; his first reaction was to move his hand to the source of pain, but he soon found his hands tied together behind his back. As the memory of what Kaede last remembered came back to him, he opened his eyes and looked around.

He was in a room of some sort, only lit by the dusk outside, with several men sitting around, most facing away from him, and one on the bed; after closer inspection, Kaede could see bloody bandages around his arm, and guessed he had been bitten.

Looking towards one of the men, he looked him over carefully, since none of them noticed he was awake yet, and figured, from the way he was dressed, that he was related to the Yakuza in someway; he was either a grunt of the gang, or a full out member, which Kaede doubted somewhat.

His attention was drawn to the corner as one of them men began walking towards it to see Rei also awake with her hands and legs tied up and tape over her mouth; almost on reflex, Kaede sprung up to his feet, which were unbound, unlike Rei, and drew the attention to him and away from the squirming girl who could do little for herself.

"Who the hell are you guys? What do you want from us!" Kaede said, feinting panic; it worked in getting their attention on him, maybe a bit too much though.

"Shut the hell up, kid!" the nearest man roared, pulling his left fist back and punching Kaede full force; Kaede did little to prepare himself from the blow, even though he could have and would have stayed standing.

Instead, he was knocked over and thrown from his spot, hitting the ground hard to give the impression he was just as he appeared; a nearly average high school student. Blood started seeping from the bandage on his cheek as the wound from the match with Souichiro was opened, and Kaede growled inwardly for that.

However, a plus side to letting himself be knocked around was where he ended up; the men weren't too smart with the weapons they took from him and Rei, and he could feel the M1 resting behind him. The man who had hit Kaede took a step towards him to continue his assault on the teen, but another man entered the room, and Kaede could tell, from the way the other men reacted and the sword the man held, he was a true Yakuza member. With the men distracted from him, Kaede worked quickly and detached the bayonet from the M1 as the new man walked into the room, hiding it along his arm.

"Now, now, is that anyway to treat our guests?" the man asked, looking towards the man who had hit Kaede earlier; he seemed pretty young, but he had several scars on his face, and messy black hair.

Despite his younger age, he still seemed well respected by the other men, even in now after the Outbreak, so Kaede could guess he had became a person of power through fighting, so he would have to wait for the right moment to try anything.

"What is your name, boy?" the man asked, looking down at Kaede who played intimidation; the man that had previously advanced on Kaede threateningly grabbed Kaede's shirt and yanked him up.

"The boss is talking to you, bastard!" he yelled, further proving Kaede's theory of the man. "Answer when he asks you something!"

"Yoshitaka-san, that's enough." the man, their boss, said firmly, looking shapely at the man, before looking to Kaede, unimpressed with his show of weakness and highly suspicious of the teen, but that didn't mean much to him; in fact, it made him only that more interested in him. "If you don't want to tell me, that's fine. But boy...you had some nice weapons...you and that girl. Where ever did you find them, eh?"

"W-we just fund them. In someone's house...!" Kaede replied; he could tell the boss was catching onto his act quickly, but he wouldn't give it up so soon when he had the rest of them convinced. "You can keep the guns, just let us go!"

"Sorry, but that's not gonna happen; in fact, I'd like to return that gun to you..." the boss said, smirking softly as he looked towards the bedridden man. "Under one condition; he's been bitten, and won't last long, but I like having an even number of underlings...without him, there'd only be five, so I'd like you to replace him."

"W-what! Like hell I'd do that!" Kaede bit back, the surprise at the suddenness of the bosses offer making him drop his act for a second, and the boss smirked wider at the slight slip up; Kaede noticed that, and quickly put his act back up. "But what about her!"

"Oh, don't worry; we'll keep her around." the boss replied with a tone Kaede really didn't like, along with the chuckles and laughs from the other men, and Kaede had to try really hard to hold back. "But don't worry; join us and you'll have first rights to her. Sound good?"

"Of course, you'll have to share her too!" one of the other men added, raising another bout of laughter.

This time however, Kaede didn't even bother with the man's comment; his chance had come, in the form of the bitten man raising, having died some time during the conversation quietly, and now returned as one of _them. _One of the men near him noticed, but didn't think he had died yet, and stepped towards the bed.

"Oi, Satoshi, you alright, man?" he asked as he approached the bitten, realizing too late what had happened.

What was once Satoshi lunged from the bed and began tearing into the man's neck, grabbing him tightly to prevent him from moving; almost instantly, one of the other man drew a handgun, and fired at the undead Satoshi, failing at hitting the head. _It _dropped the man, who was twitching as he slowly bled out, and turned his gaze on the next nearest living, Rei; through the tape, Rei screamed, there being nothing she could do.

When the boss turned to the now zombie Satoshi, Kaede moved into action with little hesitation; he cut the rest of the way through the ropes binding his hands with the bayonet, and moved towards the boss. He looked over too late to prevent Kaede's strike, and the bayonet was thrust upwards.

The boss only managed out a few gurgles as the bayonet pinned his lower jaw to the roof of his mouth, and passing all the way up to the hilt, the tip of the knife just sticking from the top of his head. Pushing the boss out of the way, Kaede grabbed the hilt of his sword, and drew it from the sheath clenched in the dead man's hand.

With most of their attention on their undead comrade, trying to shoot it and only succeeding in drawing _it's _attention to them, only one of the remaining men noticed what Kaede had done; before the man could draw his fire arm, Kaede closed the distance between them, and thrust the katana through the man's neck.

As Kaede withdrew the sword from his neck, Kaede reached into his coat and yanked the gun from it's underarm hostler; Kaede vaguely recognized it as a black HK USP Match as he raised it, keeping in mind his targeted enemies were not _them, _but humans, so there was no need for careful marksmanship.

Kaede fired two rounds into the first man's chest, and three in the last one's chest; the gunshots also attracted the undead to him, so _it _quickly changed _it's _course and started for Kaede. He didn't even wait for it to get to him, more concerned for Rei then worried about _it._

Taking a few quick strides towards Rei, Kaede easily decapitated _it _as he passed _it, _and proceeded to Rei. Kneeling down to her, Kaede dropped the gun and katana to the ground, reaching out and grabbing the tape; with one quick pull, he ripped it off, much to Rei's displeasure.

"Oww! That hurt, dammit! Couldn't you have done it more gentler!" Rei yelled, tears in her eyes and the skin under the tape red from the sudden removal.

"Well, if that's all you have to complain about, I guess you're fine..." Kaede muttered under his breath as he moved behind Rei and began unbinding her arms.

"O-oh...yeah, I'm fine...they didn't do anything to me..." Rei replied, quieting down a bit, and looking over to the six corpses laying around and gulped, finding that it was a lot easier to think of them as the bodies of _them _that the group had left behind so many times. "But...that was pretty amazing, Kaede...you...killed them all..."

"Y-yeah...what else was I suppose to do?" Kaede replied softly, not regretting one bit what he had done, but it was still an unfamiliar feeling, taking actual life when before, he was just putting corpses down. "And I'm not that amazing...I just waited for the right moment...they were stupid to keep someone that was bit in the room with them..."

"But still, there would be no way I'd be able to do something like that, even if I had the perfect chance..." Rei replied as Kaede finally got her hands free, so she began working on the knots binding her legs.

Kaede stood, leaving it to Rei and picked the katana up. With the bloodied blade in hand, he walked to the man that had been bitten; his body was twitching, and it seemed he had just finally bled to death; assuming it wouldn't be long before he arose as one of _them, _Kaede raised the sword, and drove it straight down into his skull, so far that it struck into the ground.

Kaede pulled on the sword, making sure it wouldn't come out; he wasn't sure if simply stabbing the corps through the head before it reanimated would prevent _it _from rising, so at least it would be pinned to the ground, and if itdid change, _it _would probably damage _it's _head more trying to get up, so it was perfect to leave the body like that.

The room was almost completely dark now, and Kaede took a look around; he spotted some candles on a dresser, and knelt near one of the bodies, searching it's pockets; Rei was watching him, having finished unbinding herself, with a curious look; she had first expected him to start taking the weapons and ammo from the bodies, but searching the pockets had her stumped.

"Uh, what are you looking for?" Rei asked, and looked towards the body with the katana impaled through it's head. "And you're not gonna keep that sword? Wouldn't it come in handy later on...?"

"I'm leaving it as a precaution, since we're gonna need to spend the night here." Kaede replied as he found what he was looking for, holding the lighter up so Rei could see so he wouldn't have to answer, and walked over to the candles, lighting them and giving the room more light with the flame, it being nearly pitch black outside. "Hopefully Takashi and the others are still waiting for us at the station."

"I see..." Rei said with a nod; she didn't understand fully why he left the katana like that, but since it was Kaede, she figured he had some sort of plan.

She watched as he lit a few more candles that had been left laying around, so the room was relatively lit, and then knelt near of of the bodies; this time, Kaede searched the body for guns and ammo. Without needed to be asked to help, Rei knelt down and began searching a body herself like she had done to the police officer the first night.

They were able to get nine handguns in total from the men and at least three or four extra magazines for each gun; Kaede also took a few hostlers from the bodies as well. They set the guns and ammo out of the bed, but they were far from done.

"We should check the house too, for weapons and to make sure its closed up properly for the night." Kaede said as he went over to the corner, picking up his WA2000 and Rei's M1, handing it to her.

Rei looked at the gun, it just not feeling right, then looked down to the bayonet buried in the boss's skull, and then over to Kaede, suddenly a bit squeamish.

"Ehhh...it just doesn't feel right without the bayonet..." Rei said, shifting a bit where she stood, looking pleadingly at Kaede.

He sighed, not even bothering to reply as he knelt and grabbed the hilt of the knife, giving it a solid yank; the knife slid out of the boss' skull, causing the leg to twitch and Rei to jump slightly. Kaede caught it and grinned teasingly at Rei, who looked away, embarrassed, and snatched the bayonet from Kaede.

"Let's get to work, Rei," Kaede said, holding back his laughter as he picked up a candle for himself. "I'll go and make sure the rest of this place is safe; you check the rooms for anything useful. Doubt there's any more of _them _in here_..._these guys seemed pretty smart, so I don't think they'd stay somewhere without clearing it first."

"Alright..." Rei nodded, before looking towards the window. "But where are we?"

"An apartment, I'm guessing." Kaede said as he strapped the WA2000 across his back to keep his hands free to carry the candle. "Not to far from where we where, since I saw some apartments nearby earlier; I'm assuming that's where they've brought us. We'll find our bearing tomorrow, when it's light out."

Rei nodded in agreement, picking up a candle herself, and looked around the room, heading for a closet and stepping over a few corpses as Kaede left the room.

It wasn't too long before Kaede stopped back in the room; Rei was still looking through the closet, not finding much yet. Kaede said he would be searching the other room, having found out there was only two rooms in the first place, and left again.

* * *

It was night now, the group, save for it's two missing members, was still waiting in the lobby of the police station; strangely, they hadn't needed to move from the room at all, _they _seeming to have dispersed from the area sometime during the day for some unknown reason, so there wasn't much of a threat from the undead.

At the moment, Takashi was standing guard, the rest sleeping or simply waiting for their turn to keep watch; Kouta, who was next, stood from his spot, passing Shizuka, Alice and Saya, who were all sleeping on the benches in the lobby covered with blankets they had luckily found, and walked over to Takashi.

"Get some rest; I'll take over now." Kouta said in a hushed voice, mindful of those sleeping.

Takashi looked at him tiredly and nodded, shifting the shotgun in his hands and walking towards one of the benches, looking at Saeko who was likewise up. He sat with a soft sigh, and set the Ithaca within reach before looking towards Saeko.

"You should sleep too, since you have the last watch after all." Takashi spoke quietly to Saeko, bringing her out of her thoughts.

Saeko looked over to Takashi, to see him patting the spot next to him with a warming smile on his face, and couldn't help but to smile back, walking over to join him. She sat, and did not hesitate one bit before leaning on Takashi's shoulder, making herself comfortable as Takashi pulled a blanket they over them; within moments, they were both asleep.

* * *

Having moved from the bedroom, Rei and Kaede sat in the living room around the coffee table, the handguns and ammo as well as a few other things they had found; a few flashlights that were working despite the EMP blast from earlier, a few replica 'ninja' swords, and what Kaede guessed was the rest of the Yakuza's ammo they had found in a closet.

That also told Kaede that they had been here for awhile, to have extra ammo stored away in the house. With Rei mostly just watching, Kaede sorted through the guns and ammo; since most of the ammo was of .45 ACP caliber and .40 S&W caliber, Kaede set several aside, there not being enough ammo to keep them around for too long.

Kaede did however keep the ammo just in case, and looked at the five guns he was planning to keep; both of the HK USP Match handguns(it turned out the man that he had taken the first from had a second), a Walther P99 with a under the barrel, which Kaede quickly checked to see if it was working, and a pair of HK MK 23 handguns, both with silencers but one had a flashlight, the other a laser sight.

"You can sleep in the other room, Rei; I'll be busy for awhile..." Kaede said, looking up at Rei momentarily before looking back down at the MK 23 he was examining; he was planning on checking each of the five guns, making sure they were in working order before actually using them.

"Alright then...good night." Rei replied, holding back a yawn; she couldn't doubt that she was tired, so she accepted Kaede's offer without complaint, and began heading to the empty bedroom, leaving Kaede behind in the living room.

* * *

The next morning, Rei awoke with the sun shining into the room; she sat up, rubbing her eyes, and yawned before groggily standing up, the events of last night coming to mind as she familiarized herself with the apartment.

After a quick stop to the bathroom, Rei continued into the living room to see Kaede sleeping on the couch, probably having passed out at sometime during the night. Since they didn't eat last night, Rei's stomach growled, so she went to the kitchen, leaving Kaede alone for now, and started looking for something edible; since the EMP blast knocked out all electricity just the day before, most of the food hadn't spoiled yet, but that didn't mean it was particularly good still.

With that in mind, Rei set out making a quick meal, knowing that they would have to leave very soon when they were ready; her cooking eventually woke Kaede, who jumped slightly and sat up, looking around before everything came back to him.

Kaede looked over to Rei to find her giggling softly at his sudden awakening, and he frowned, standing up and picking up the P99, which was in a hostler without a belt that could be attached to the holster Rei was wearing. He yawned lightly as he walked over to the kitchen, peaking at what Rei was making before holding out the holstered gun to her.

"Here, I want you to have this one; goes under the arm." Kaede said tiredly, watching as Rei took the gun and looked at it oddly before looking up to Kaede; he cut in before she could speak, knowing already what was coming. "I'll teach you how to shoot it properly later, but it also has a laser sight; all you have to keep in mind is to aim the dot a little lower than your target. And it's loaded with .40 Smith and Wesson ammunition...less recoil."

With that explanation, Rei attached the holster under her arm after a light struggle, Kaede wandering off muttering 'Toilet,' and she turned her attention back to the meal being fixed. Kaede soon was back, and went to the coffee table; there, he pulled on the dual under-arm holsters for the USP Matches, sliding both into them after checking the magazines to make sure they were both full.

As Rei finished and started serving food onto plates, Kaede started loading the other two guns, the ammo, and the flashlights into a messengers bag he had found; carrying that and the four ninja swords, which were short, single pieces of metal lacking a hilt and came two in a sheath, he walked over to the table, setting them down. As Kaede sat in one of the chairs, Rei walked over with the food and set a plate in front of him before sitting herself.

"We'll need to hurry and get to the police station when we're done. Do you know how far we are now?" Kaede asked as he picked up a pair of chopsticks and pushed some of the food into his mouth, chewing and swallowing. "This is pretty good for being thrown together..."

"Not really...I'll be able to tell when we're outside though." Rei replied as she ate as well, quicker than usual but no where near as much as Kaede was chowing down, smiling at him a bit sarcastic. "I'll take that as a compliment, so thanks."

* * *

As the morning came, Takashi slowly opened his eyes, still feeling Saeko beside him; looking towards the front of the lobby, he could see Kouta lightly dozing, and sighed. No matter how quiet and small that exhale of breath was, it enough to wake Saeko from her slumber with a jump.

"S-sorry..." Takashi muttered, looking over to the clock as Saeko moved off of him, yawning behind her hand; this time, it was Kouta who woke with a start, suddenly alert until he looked over to Takashi and Saeko, grinning.

"Why didn't you wake me up, Hirano-kun...?" Saeko asked sleepily as Saya stirred, waking slowly as well from the sun shining in.

"A-ah...you two just looked too...c-comfortable to disturb. Don't worry, I was fine taking the rest of the night." Kouta replied softly, stretching out and hopping to his feet. "See? Good as new."

Saya sat up in her spot and yawned as well, picking her glasses up from the table she left them on and pulled them on.

"Jeez, can't you guys keep it down while others are sleeping?" she muttered as she stood up stretching, getting a few apologetic looks from the other three. "Well, now that I'm up...Busujima-senpai, shall we get started on breakfast?"

The night before, they had found the cafeteria of the police station and, luckily, there was quite a bit of nonperishable food there they could use. With a nod from Saeko, the two girls stood and started for the cafeteria kitchen with a word to be cautious from Takashi, since they really didn't make a full sweep of the building yet.

**

* * *

**

Not even bothering to really clean up, Rei and Kaede double checked that they had everything with them, both hoping for the best as they started for the door. First, Kaede peered through the peeping glass in the door, making sure the hall was clear before venturing out.

Opening the door, Kaede slid out quickly, checking down both sides of the hallway with his gun raised, before relaxing slightly; it was empty. With Rei following after, they made their way through the apartments; luckily, the set up wasn't too confusing, and they were soon in the lobby, having to take the stairs down since the elevator was out.

"I guess that's why none of _them _got in, huh?" Kaede muttered, seeing the entrance into the lobby completely blocked off with furniture that Kaede had no hope of moving on his own. "But those guys had to have moved freely in and out...there's gotta be another door around here..."

"How about the emergency exit?" Rei asked hopefully, pointing to a sign reading 'Emergency Exit' and pointed down to the other end of the hall.

"It's worth a shot" Kaede replied, shrugging as he began heading down that way with Rei following.

They were both pleased to find the emergency exit unobstructed, and because of how it was set up, Kaede guessed this was the door the men were using to get in and out of the apartments. At the door, Kaede was careful to open it quietly and peered out into the surrounding area; there were a few of _them _limping about, but not many. It seemed the ATV had done all it could in keeping _them _distracted, and that it had died sometime during the night.

Kaede turned to Rei, pressing his finger to his lips signaling for silence before moving out into the open with her following. Making their way past _them, _Rei looked around to figure out where they were; luckily, Kaede's guess was right; they were still in the same area as before, and that wasn't too far from the police station.

She relayed the information as soon as they were clear away from _them._

"It shouldn't take us too long to get to the station from here, Kaede. We just need to keep going down this road here for awhile." Rei said just barely over a whisper.

Kaede nodded in response as they continued down the street, keeping a cautious eye out as they moved at a quicker pace than the day before. As they came up to an intersection after several blocks, Rei caught Kaede's attention before motioning down the street on the right; the duo turned and started down that way, and Kaede saw a sign with 'Higashi Police Station' pointing down the street.

In the distance, they could barely make out the building of the police station. However, a growling that was worse than anything Kaede had heard since the outbreak made them both stop dead in their tracks, the pattering of four feet coming from behind a car...

* * *

It was nearing the deadline that Takashi had decided on, and every one was on edge, wondering if Rei and Kaede would make it in time. Shizuka was once again keeping Alice occupied with Zeke while Kouta stood near the entrance, keeping an eye out with the scope of his AR-10, with Saya standing nearby, and Takashi sitting on the desk with Saeko leaning against it near him.

It was quite, save for Shizuka and Alice's occasional laughter, and the tension was high despite that those few bouts of laughter; even so, Shizuka was also feeling the same as the others, the situation having been explained to her the night before.

As the clock reached 11:30, the tension seemed to thicken, none of them wanting to leave the two behind, but knowing as well that it could become very dangerous if they stayed too long, especially since they hadn't been able to clear out the building completely due to lack of knowledge of the layout.

It was a just about four minutes later that Kouta suddenly shouted, hopping with joy, making most of them jump.

"What the hell's your problem, lard ass!" Saya shouted back at the dancing gun otaku.

"They're coming~! They're down the street!" Kouta yelled back, pointing frantically and hopping around to the glass entrance; at this, almost everyone jumped up and rushed to the entrance.

Saya fumbled with the binoculars around her neck and looked towards where Kouta was still pointing down the street. Everyone watched as she finally got them up to her face, and her excitement fade almost instantly; their hearts dropped, and Kouta quickly whipped back to the windows, raising the AR-10 and looking to where he had seen them.

"What the fuck are those!" Saya gasped under her breath, having a much clearer view than Kouta did with the binoculars than Kouta did with the scope, but he could faintly make out what was confronting the two, and stopping their progress..

"D-dogs?"

* * *

Kaede was still with Rei trembling behind him, the beast before them a truly hellish sight; _it_ had once been a dog, a Doberman Pinscher, a big one at that, but _it_ seemed to have been affected by the disease that had been causing the dead to start walking again, for _it's_ flesh was staring to rot off _it's _bones, and _it's_ fur was stained with blood.

The dog, if _it _could even be called a dog anymore, pulled _it's _lips back in a low growl, _it's_ jagged teeth bloodstained, _it's_ ears and nose twitching as _it_ looked straight at Kaede; it didn't matter that, like _It's_ once human counterparts, _it_ couldn't see, because dogs had a greater sense of smell and hearing, so even if they were silent, _it_ could still smell them, having at least those two senses intact still.

Kaede didn't even have enough time to fully raise his rifle before the dog lunged, and Kaede let the gun fly from his hands to prevent _it _from biting him, the _thing's _jaws snapping inches in front of his face as he held _it _back with his forearm to _it's _neck; Rei moved to help, but she was faced with a problem of her own as another one of the dogs like the one Kaede was dealing with came out from behind a car, and charged for Rei.

Having played with his own dog more or less in the same fashion, Kaede was quick to move into action, wrapping his arm around the dog and flipping them over, pinning the dog down with his knee and putting all his wight down, pinning _it's _head down with one hand as the other grabbed at one of the USP Matches under his arm.

With little remorse, Kaede pressed the gun barrel to the dogs chin, just above the neck, and fired. Blood flew and the body went limp under him, giving Kaede a few seconds of ease until he heard gunshots, making him look up quickly; a second dog was charging for Rei, and she fired at _it, _but _it _was just too fast, and Rei had not training shooting dogs.

A few chunks of flesh flew from the dog's back as the bullets grazed _it, _but that was the best that happened; just as the dog lept at Rei. Time seemed to slow down, Kaede whipping his gun around to try and stop the attack as Rei stumbled back and fell, trying to lift the M1 to at least try and stop the undead animal with the bayonet, when a round blew through dog's neck, shifting _it's _path jest slightly.

The dog fell in a heap, and Kaede quickly rushed to the squirming beast; holding _it _still with his foot on _it's _neck, Kaede looked down at _it _with cold eyes before firing a round into _it's _head, killing _it _for good. Not yet relaxing, Kaede quickly whipped around, looking for any more of the beastly dogs; seeing nothing but a few of the corpses of humans attracted by the gunfire hobbling towards them, Kaede went over to Rei and helped her up.

"Are you okay, Rei?" he asked quickly, looking for any blood that was her own or any signs of injury.

"I'm fine...just a little shaken...that's the first time we've encountered something...something like _that." _Rei said, bitterly pointing to one of the dog's bodies; Kaede nodded slowly, just as a groan drew their attention.

Like with the dog, only with a more precise shot, _it _dropped as a 7.62x51mm NATO round ripped through _it's_ skull, courtesy of the gun otaku at the police station. With that as a signal to hurry up, Kaede and Rei started for the station, running the rest of the way after Kaede picked up his dropped WA2000, to meet with their waiting friends.

Even with the knowledge of a new, even more dangerous undead enemy, things were still starting to cheer up for the group; they were finally whole again, and they would be able to face the next day together, whatever it would bring.

**Chapter 10, end**

**Authors notes: Hope you enjoyed the chapter guys; the next one should be up soon! And I also have a poll, now that I've figured out I can do that, so please check it out; it's important to the continuation of this story! It's about which characters are going to be reunited with which family members.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's notes: By the way, I changed a little something in chapter 6...so you don't have to go back and re-read it for such a small detail, I changed the breed and name of Kaede's dog; it's now a three year old female Akita Inu named Yuki. It was a small detail in that chapter, but it'll be important soon.**

**Chapter 11: Assault on DEAD Precinct and the DEAD Truck, Mark II **

Takashi and Kaede came to a silent agreement that the reason for him and Rei being so late would be told at a later time since, now, there was plenty of rejoicing among the group, Alice and Shizuka, of course, being the most excited to have the group complete again, but Kouta was also a bit excited at the two's return; actually, he had noticed the new guns Rei and Kaede were carrying, and before her could mention the two MK 23s, he was distracted...

As Shizuka calmed down enough to realize she should check both to see if they were hurt or not, Takashi's eyes drifted over to Saeko, and soon found Saya's on him in turn as Shizuka fussed over the bloodied bandage from Kaede's re-opened wound, pushing the thoughts of giving Kouta one of the handguns from Kaede's mind.

"So, what's our next move, Komuro-kun?" Saeko asked what was on most of their minds, now that they had everyone assembled.

"Well...now that we have Rei, we can do a cleaner sweep of the building, right?" Takashi said, looking over to Rei, already knowing she would know the layout of the station by heart already. "And we should check around for weapons and ammo too, right? Since this is a police station, after all...is there anything else we should keep in mind?"

His question was addressed to everyone, but Kaede looked towards Saya for an answer, making the genius scoff and look away.

"Are you asking me to do all the thinking for you or something?" Saya replied, sarcastically.

"A leader normally has his staff help him strategize, right?" Takashi replied smoothly, with a small grin; Saya blinked at his response and sighed defeatedly.

"You got me there..." Saya muttered under her breath, spotting the directory that hadn't really been any help before, but decided to give it one last look, addressing Rei as she walked over to it. "Miyamoto. Do you know where they store the guns?"

"They probably have a storeroom or something, but I don't really know about it...my dad wasn't allowed to show me that part of the station." Rei replied with a thoughtful frown, that being the only place that Rei didn't know how to get to and her expression told them that, their hopes of Rei being able to lead them anywhere in the station fading slightly; she suddenly thought of something, and turned to Kouta. "You're into this kinda stuff, right? Do you have an idea where they'd put the weapons?"

Kouta was instantly fired up, having a general idea of where the armory was at in the station.

"It would have to be somewhere easy to get to when the police are dispatched," Kouta replied excitedly. "So I'd bet it's somewhere here on the first floor, labeled as an armory more than likely."

"Then let's search this floor!" Saya said, turning towards the hall that lead further into the station, the others more or less getting ready to set out.

"Shouldn't we just check the map for the directions...?" Takashi asked, almost regretting saying anything from the looks Saya, Kaede, and even Kouta sent towards him of disappointment; Saya was the one to respond, as usual.

"Do you think the police are stupid enough to point out where they keep their gun to anyone who walks in off the streets?" she bit sarcastically, Takashi needing no other reason than that.

However, Saeko did pause in front of the map on the wall as they started heading deeper into the station before catching up with Takashi, who had somehow ended up leading the group with the Ithaca in hand.

"They don't have a description for the room in the back on the left side. I think that would be our best bet." Saeko commented, proving that the map was a bit useful to their needs in the case of what was missing from it helping them find what they were looking for.

"Right; Kaede, Kouta, keep an eye out behind us!" Takashi ordered, guessing there was still a few of _them _lurking about in the station; without needing to be told twice, the two fell back, herding Alice, Shizuka and Saya towards the middle, Rei walking ahead of them for a frontal defense, since Saeko and Takashi were walking a bit ahead, making sure the path was clear.

It also gave them time to talk a bit about what they may or may not find, away from Rei's ears.

"Do you think it's possible that we may encounter Miyamoto-san's father..." Saeko trailed off, her tone making it clear what she was talking about to Takashi, who tensed up at the sudden realization that it could happen. "I don't see many signs of a struggle though...you don't suppose there might still be people inside, do you? We didn't really check very far before, since it could be easy to get lost without Miyamoto-san."

"It's possible...both of those scenarios...but there's no way to tell for sure. We saw those tire marks outside, so we do know a lot of the police were dispatched, maybe even all of them..."

"So a lot of things are up in the air then..." Saeko replied with a light sigh; their attention was suddenly drawn to Zeke the small white dog that had been ultimately leading to sniff out any danger that may be approaching.

And Zeke was growling furiously in an attack position; down the hall came the tell tale groans of _them _shuffling down towards them, putting them all on alert while _they _just happen to be heading their way.

"You guys didn't sweep the building!" Kaede hissed, suddenly realizing the fact and looking more towards Kouta than anyone. "You should have had plenty of time-!"

"And we did! We just didn't know if we'd get lost, not knowing the station! Maybe if someone hadn't taken their sweet time-" Saya said in Kouta's defense, having been suddenly shut up by the icy glare Kaede shot to her, his mood suddenly foul after being unintentionally reminded of the Yakuza who tried making him join them by using Rei.

In front, the sound of Saeko's Murata sword sang as she moved to the undead hobbling towards them with a deadly grace; before _they _were even aware of Saeko's presence, she had decapitated one, and thrust the blade's tip through anothers neck, pulling the blade straight up and splitting _it's _head in half.

Though they were somewhat use to Saeko's amazing skill and brutality on the battle field, it still made most of the group shiver at the sight of Saeko's sadistic grin as she hacked away at the zombies. Unfortunately for him, Kouta was left out of the loop, but Kaede was given a chance to 'shine' himself, as a single walking corpse coming from his side, and two on Kouta's side, drawn by Saya's little outburst .

Before Kouta was forced into firing his AR-10, Kaede drew one of the replica ninja swords, flinging it with an accuracy at one advancing on Kouta, striking _it_ right between the eyes as he drew a second of the swords, easily dispatching the one nearest to him by driving the sword through _it's _skull; he jerked the blade free as an afterthought as he moved quickly to the other corpses, grabbing the hilt of the one he had thrown just as the body fell, gravity withdrawing that blade for him.

The last one seemed a tad bit smarter, being able to use the sound of the second body dropping to take a lunge at Kaede; unluckily for _it, _Kaede simply stepped back, out of the way of the lunge and swung both blades upwards. Normally, the swords he was using would be able to sever a head, but using two like Kaede was, he was able to send the head flying, and Saya vaguely noted not to piss Kaede off again, even if she didn't know what she did in the first place or if it was really her.

To say the least, she was sure not to mention he and Rei's absence again for awhile.

In the front, Saeko had finished dispatching the undead there, having even decided to draw her second sword for a test run at dual wielding; it was quite a thrill for her, being able to cause twice the carnage, twice as faster; she almost had a reenactment of the 'I'm wet!' incident at the shrine, but she held back the best she could, enjoying a silent bliss as she cut through _them, _feeling a bit unfulfilled when she cut down the last one a little too soon for her liking, wishing there were more in her dark state of mind, before being pulled back into a calmer state of mind when she felt Takashi's hand on her shoulder.

Saeko shuttered softly as she calmed down, looking to Takashi over her shoulder as she let her hands relax slightly. After receiving a small smile from Saeko, Takashi turned to the rest of the group to confirm they were okay too before motioning them to continue onwards, in silence naturally, having no way to tell if there was more of _them _or not.

It wasn't too long before they got to the end of the hall, finding the room on the left with a stairwell to the right; as expected, the door was marked 'Police Armory,' and had a coded lock, plus a regular key lock.

"Here it is..." Takashi said, looking at the lock a bit downheartedly. "And it's locked alright. Looks like we need a pass code to get in."

"Doesn't look like I can pick the lock either." Kaede muttered, rubbing his chin; he hardly surprised anyone anymore with his seemingly endless line of skills, so it was more of a surprise that he couldn't.

"...I'll just have to blast it open then...!" Takashi growled, his hand tightening on the Ithaca, not planning on leaving the armory unsearched now that they made it there.

"Stop! It would take too many shots to do that!" Kouta cut it, waving his hands for Takashi to cease his thought pattern. "We'll run out of ammo too fast like that!"

"More importantly, what if one of the bullets ricocheted and hit one of us?" Kaede added, noticing Kouta had basically placed his argument out in the open; it was convincing, considering their predicament, but there may be a whole armory waiting for them, so Kaede's words were just icing on the cake.

"Then what should we do!" Takashi lashed out before he could hold back, but no one said anything against it; in fact, they basically ignored the sudden outburst.

"Maybe we should try shooting the hinges...no, never mind. I doubt we could get this door off even with breaching charges..." Kouta muttered, now in full otaku mode. "It looks like the lock's power outage-proof, but the EMP probably blew it out regardless...oh, I know!"

Kouta's sudden realization made the others jump slightly; Rei, who was standing guard at one end and Saeko who was at the other both looking back to him curiously.

"Does anyone know the last time they renovated this station?" Kouta asked, looking from face to face, only getting shaking heads all around.

"I'm not sure exactly...but it was around the time my dad was transferred here, so around the time we were in kindergarten, I guess?" Rei offered, hopeful that the information was of some use.

And it was, very useful in fact; a dark grin spread over Kouta's face as Saya caught on to what Kouta was thinking, and Kaede shortly after.

"In that case, it's probably not drill proof then." Saya stated smugly as she knelt, setting the bag she was carrying on the ground before fishing around inside of it.

She eventually produced a hand cranked drill that she had taken along from the school, when she and Kouta were held up in the wood shop classroom.

"Oh? You two know about breaking and entering too, huh?" Kaede said, a bit impressed since he didn't exactly expect it from either of the two.

"This knowledge is highly relevant to covert operations!" Kouta said cheerfully as he looked at the drill Saya had just handed to him.

"You'd better be thankful for this!" Saya said, grinning down at Kouta, who bowed down as if Saya was a god, muttering things like 'I'm not worthy~' and whatnot; Saya only laughed with superiority before pointing Kouta to get to work.

It was awhile before Kouta finally sat back, panting and drenched in sweat, the drill in one hand and the lock in the other, and the door slightly open.

"I...I finally did it..." Kouta huffed, Alice clapping for his success.

At that moment, Zeke gave a warning bark towards the stairwell, a shadow rounding the corner followed by the groaning of _them._ As _it _came into view, Takashi tensed up; it was a police officer. Rei had gasped, but luckily, it looked like she only knew him, and _it _wasn't her father.

"Officer Kato..." Rei said, looking at the corpse with horror; not only was _it's _shoulder bitten out, _it _also had a gun wound in _it's _head, and a S&W Model 36, the standard police firearm, hanging from _it's _finger by the trigger guard.

"Looks like he tired committing suicide when he was bitten..." Kaede observed, his question about damaging the brain before _they _rose being answered.

As was beginning to become expected, Saeko didn't hesitate in the lest, speeding up the stairs in a matter of seconds and driving the end of her Murata sword through _it's _skull; on the landing, she was able to see a few more walking corpses limping towards her, and a small grin spread on her face.

"I'll take care of _these. _Hurry up and get inside!" Saeko shouted over her shoulder; knowing she could take care of herself, Takashi turned to the door and threw in open, his heart dropping to the ground.

The rest of the group followed him in, their expecting faces dropping as the saw the armory completely cleaned out of everything.

"W-what the hell...?" Kouta chocked, nearly in tears at the sight of an empty armory. "There's nothing left...!"

"Of course! Police were deployed throughout the city, so of course they'd take their weapons!" Saya cried out, stomping her foot in frustration. "God damn it! Why didn't I realize that sooner!"

"We're done in here then!" Takashi yelled, unreasonably angry at the police for emptying the armory. "Saya, where do you think we can find some information that could be of some use!"

"N-no, wait! There may be some ammo left over!" Kouta cut in; Kaede on the other hand, didn't even bother saying anything and rushed through the armory, making a quick sweep of the place before they moved on.

"We need to hurry!" Saeko yelled from outside the room, knowing more of _them _were on the way because of all the shouting they were doing in frustration from the empty armory they had placed high hopes on before. "We'll be in trouble of you all sit around in there and are ambushed by _them_!"

Takashi turned to Kaede, about to tell him they needed to move on, but was silent when he saw his attempt to find ammo wasn't in vain; Kouta quickly went to join him and collect a few boxes of shotgun shells Kaede had found left over when the police were deployed.

Takashi motioned Rei out, the two standing guard to make sure Saeko's scenario did become a reality; it wasn't long before Alice, Shizuka and Saya came out, followed by Kaede and Kouta, Kaede pushing the last box of ammo into Kouta's backpack.

"We should check the evidence storage room too," Kouta said to Takashi as they joined him and Rei before heading towards the stairs with Saeko. "That's where they would keep the illegal stuff they've confiscated, and it might include guns. It's not police equipment, so they wouldn't have taken it with them!"

"That's on the third floor! I remember seeing it when I was in middle school!" Rei said, nodding with Kouta's theory. "And they do keep guns there the police take from criminals!"

"Then that's where we're going next! Don't forget the drill." Takashi said, his and most of the group's spirits' high once again at the new chance at getting their hands on some better weapons; in the background, Kouta had checked the body of the police officer to find nothing of use, the bullets in the gun all used. "Rei and I will lead; Kaede and Saeko, you two take up the rear, and Kouta, stick with Saya and the others!"

As they started up the stairs, they fell into the positions Takashi had ordered, with he and Rei leading, Kouta closely behind with Saya, Shizuka, and Alice behind him, and bringing up the rear was Kaede and Saeko, both with their swords drawn, and Kaede's WA2000 strapped across his back.

The rest of the stairwell was empty, thanks to Saeko, so they were able to get to the third floor quickly without pausing; however, as Takashi and Rei pushed open the doors onto the floor, they were met with only a single one of _them _in sight.

"Doesn't look like there's too many of _them _up here." Takashi said back to the group as he slammed the butt of the Ithaca into the corpse's chin, knocking it back, and Rei finished it with the M1's bayonet as they moved on, filing into the hall.

"There it is! At the end of the hall!" Rei chimed, pointing out the double doors at the other end of the hall, with she and Takashi started for.

"Remember to keep quiet now!" Takashi needlessly reminded the group as they moved on, their goal in sight and the last thing they needed was to draw the attention of any of _them _in the area still.

As the group moved on, Kaede and Saeko started following, making sure none of _them _came after them; as they caught up to the group, Saeko suddenly stopped as she checked behind them again, and Kaede was soon to slow as well to see what had caught Saeko's attention; like her, a small smirk grew on his lips, but for a different reason than hers.

"Takashi..." Saeko spoke, turning everyone's attention to the fact that she was far behind them for some reason. "The important thing now is getting our hands on some weapons, right?"

"Right!" Takashi yelled back, turning but by no means stopping the group from moving on.

"In that case, I may have found what we were looking for..." Saeko replied, her tongue running along her lips as she eyes her prey; a former police officer, probably of the riot force judging from his attire and the gun hanging from _it's _shoulder had pushed open a door by walking into it, attracted by the voices in the hall.

Saeko swung the Murata sword clean with a powerful motion, leaving a bloody ark on the ground before she rushed the walking corpse, sheathing the blade for now and using the other katana; she ducked under the arms that reached for her, ending up with her back to the zombie, and thrust the blade straight up, cutting the strap of _it's _helmet and sending it flying as the blade passed through the top of _it's _head.

As Saeko withdrew the blade and let the body fall, Kouta was the first on the scene, the rest of the group waiting where Takashi had stopped; Kouta practically jumped onto the corpse, knowing there would be some good stuff to be found from the riot gear _it _had been wearing. Even Saeko was looking at him a bit oddly at how happy he was to search a dead body...

"Oh~ It's a full-auto MP5-SFK! It's got a suppressor and everything; three extra magazines too~" Kouta hummed to himself like it was Christmas time as he examined the gun that had been dangling from _it's _shoulder, then spotted the sidearm. "And an M92 Vertec handgun. With two extra magazines!"

"Miss Shizuka...Kouta-chan looks like he's having fun..." Alice said, a bit of fear in her voice at Kouta's obsessiveness with guns, holding onto Shizuka's sleeve. "He's scarier than _them _right now..."

"Well, everyone has to cope in their own way, Alice-chan..." Shizuka said, not knowing if the child would understand but spoke her mind anyways. "This is just Hirano-kun's way..."

"You should use this, Busujima-san." Kouta said, still addressing Saeko politely, as he held out the Vertec to her, with the clips and the thigh holster, as well as another holster for the magazines. "You can keep it on your leg with these..."

"I don't know how to use it at all though." Saeko replied, taking the gun anyways since she could guess Kouta's response already, and began trying to figure out how to work with the holster of the gun.

"I'll teach you how to later, when we have time. Just hold onto it for now." Kouta said, standing as he strapped the AR-10 to his back firmly, pulling the strap of the MP5 on and sliding the extra magazines into a free pocket in his vest.

"We'll be better off with these now, won't we?" Takashi asked as he watched Kouta adjust the sights on the MP5 a bit to preference.

"They'll help, but a new SMG and a few handguns won't make us unstoppable." Kouta replied, confusing the others for a second before Kouta looked over to Kaede, then to Rei, reminding them of the new guns they had, and reminding Kaede about the MK 23s in his bag. "What we really need is more ammo though in the long run, since these guns'll last us awhile, if we keep them maintained. Plus, it's not like a silencer gets rid of all the sound so we still can't fire whenever we want..."

As Kouta was speaking, the group moved the short distance to the doors, and Kouta went to work drilling out the locks when he had finished speaking. Takashi, Kaede, and Rei all took up defensive position around him and the other four, Saeko still trying to get the holster on properly by herself, and Kaede decided it could wait a while before mentioning the other handguns in his bag.

When Kouta finally got the doors open, Takashi and Kaede entered, and checked around making sure the place was empty just as a precaution. Takashi motioned the others in, Saeko and Rei staying out to guard the entrance.

"Where do we start looking?" Takashi asked, looking back out the door hopefully.

"The police in this prefecture aren't that organized so just start in the Criminal Affairs and Anti-firearms Divisions...those both handle firearms control!" Rei replied from the doorway, peeking in so she wouldn't have to yell too loudly.

After he and Takashi had swept the room, Kaede had started looking for the flashlights in his bag so they could see better in the dark; he turned on on and handed one to Takashi and another to Saya, who had already started trying to look for the divisions Rei had mentioned.

"Ah, so flashlights still work too?" Takashi asked as he was handed the light, and turned it to the nearest rack of items, starting the search as well, finding the Criminal Affairs Division's rack right off the bat.

"Anything that's battery powered and doesn't have any integrated micro chips should still work." Saya said with a sigh as she also was able to find the Anti-firearms Division pretty quickly; she, Alice and Shizuka helped her look and gather a few weapons and some ammo.

Takashi grabbed the only thing that really looked to be of any use; a large black case that was easily the length of a gun. He brought it over to the table the others had been piling up the guns on, and where Kaede was practically turning the contents of his bag out to get to the handguns and their holsters at the bottom; Takashi was a bit surprised at what was in that bag, and his curiosity of what the two had encountered while they were separated grew.

Takashi passed the flashlight to Kouta so he could start looking himself before setting the case on the table, and opened it; the sound of something hitting the ground behind Takashi made him look back to see Kouta, who was walking towards one of the racks, staring at the contents of the case, the stars in his eyes expected.

"W-whoa! A M1014 JSCS...a Benelli M4 Super 90!" Kouta squealed, nearly drooling over the pistol-gripped shotgun in the case, that Takashi found a bit strange, use to shotguns like the Ithaca and M870, which Kaede still hadn't been re-united with yet. "It's a combat shotgun used by the US marines and the British army...! You found it, so you should use it, Takashi!"

"What, me?" Takashi said, looking at Kouta who motioned offering to the gun; Takashi picked it up, feeling the weight and the odd feeling it had in his hands. "It's heavier than the Ithaca though..."

"Maybe so, but it's more suitable for combat; it's gas operated, so it should be a snap to use!" Kouta said, dreamily. "Using it's just like the Ithaca...put the shells in and pull the bolt back like normal! And it's got a door breach on it, so you can use it like a pole-arm too!"

Across from them, Kaede finally got the two MK 23s out, after taking nearly everything out, including their holsters and the extra clips for both of them; when he saw the two guns, Kouta was on Kaede like flies on horseshit.

"T-those are...where did you get those!" Kouta asked eagerly, flailing his arms as Kaede looked at the two guns, ignoring Kouta's question before handing him the one with the flashlight attachment; Kouta took it and examined it happily. "A HK Mark 23...oh how I've dreamed of having one of these...it has a silencer and a flashlight too no less!"

Again, Christmas had come to Kouta earlier, and Kaede ignored him; he grabbed on of the other holsters, and a three of the six magazines for the MK 23s, and walked over to Takashi. He handed them to him, and cut in before Takashi could say the over used 'I don't know how to use it.'

"This one had a laser sight, like Rei's does; all you have to do is aim the laser and shoot, okay?" Kaede said as Takashi took the gun, holster, and magazines. "It's an under arm holster, unless you want the leg holster?"

Kaede jerked his thumb towards Kouta, who was already attaching the said holster to his leg; Takashi shook his head, and pulled off his gakuran to get the holster on like Kaede had his. When he was done, taking a bit of time to get it on, and the gun in with the magazines in the holders under the one for the gun; there was only two, so there was one left over that Takashi left on the table for now. Kouta on the other hand, had gotten his on without a problem, and slid the magazines into another few pockets, which were specifically for handgun mags.

As Takashi pulled his gakuran back on, he was thinking of simply sliding the last clip into his pocket when he spotted something other than the box of shells in the Benelli M4's case; curious, he pulled it out to find it was a sort of harness that, as far as he could tell, would go around the waits and over the shoulders, and hand several pouches around the belt part, and slots for shotgun shells.

Taking a glance at Kouta and his vest, Takashi put the harness on, sliding the extra magazine into a long, thin pouch towards the front, and pulled the shotgun shells from his pocket, sliding them into their now proper place, before turning to find Saya standing at the other side of the table, which had a small accumulation of handguns and a few shotguns, and quite the pile of ammo boxes.

"This is all we were able to find" she said with her arms crossed; apparently, they had been waiting for awhile while the three were busy, as their attention drifted to Alice and Kouta; Alice had just gotten Kouta's attention, and scared him with a flashlight she had found herself while helping look for things.

If Kouta's reaction was true or he was humoring the girl was unclear, but Kouta was hyperventilating on the ground at the moment. Takashi sighed and looked over to the guns and ammo, then to Kaede as he was packing up his bag.

"What should we do with these?" he asked, drawing Kaede's attention to the guns.

"Our current equipment is better, but we can bring them along just in case; the ammo will surely come in handy though." Kaede said thoughtfully as he finished loading up his bag, and started filling the bit of extra space with some of the other ammo they had found. "It may be a hassle to carry them all for now, but once we get to the humvee, we can store them in there."

This time, they were distracted by Shizuka trying to act frightening like Alice had done; all the flashlight had done in her case was highlight her chest, and gave Kouta a nosebleed.

"No body's perfect, but there's such a thing as being too imperfect too..." Saya muttered under her breath, her eyebrow twitching at the sight of Kouta twirling in happiness. "Oi, lard ass. Get over here and help out a bit."

Kouta quickly came to Saya's call, and began loading what guns he could and the rest of the ammo into his backpack, having to leave behind most of the shotguns behind because of their lengths; Kaede grabbed one, however, that had grabbed his eye, as well as a sort of holster for it that Kaede added to the things strapped across his back, taking up holding the WA2000 again. The shotgun was a older model, and strangely had a five shot revolving cylinder, like a revolver; it was actually a Baikal revolving shotgun*.

"Is that everything then?" Takashi asked, making sure that they had everything they were planning on taking; there were nods from Kaede and Kouta, and a few from the others as well.

"Should we get going then?" Saeko's voice came from the doorway of the storage room.

Takashi, followed by everyone else turned to see her standing there; she had finally gotten the holster on properly on her ow, and just that was enough to change her whole appearance. With the two katanas at her left hip, the handgun strapped to her right thigh, and a second holster foe the magazines which was where the slit in her skirt was, made her seem even more dangerous...and sexy.

The girls look in jealousy while the boys couldn't help to stare, bringing about a small squabble among the developing pairs; Shizuka and Alice were simply amazed at how much cooler Saeko looked, giving a few awed words as the group started filing out, Rei clinging to Kaede jealously and even Saya sticking closer to Kouta as the exited.

As the group filed out of the storage room, Takashi hesitated outside of the door; he looked back in and could see where he had left the Ithaca leaning against the table. He had decided to leave it behind, since he now had a better gun, but there was still some regrets at leaving the gun he had actually become attached to.

He lifted his hand, and halfheartedly saluted it before turning and catching up with the group.

"Saya, where to next!" Takashi called out as he caught up; Saya, in turn, looked towards Rei, already knowing where they needed to head to next.

"Miyamoto, do you know where the communications office is?" she asked; Rei thought a second before replying.

"It's on the top floor." she replied, knowing the way after thinking about it. "I can lead us to it from there!"

With the directions given, the group started back down the hall to the stairs and started up again; more of _them _had gathered during their time in the storage room, so it was a fight up to the top floor. The group fell into a positioning with those able for melee attack were leading, Saeko and Kaede, who slung his gun onto his back again despite the shotgun, at the very front, followed by Rei and Takashi, Saya, Shizuka, Alice, and Kouta bringing up the rear.

With those four clearing the way, it wasn't too hard for them to make there way up the stairs, but none the less, Shizuka had tripped and fallen at some point over a corpse; it became a close call when it turned out _it _wasn't dead, and started moving towards Shizuka, who naturally screamed.

Before _it _could grab her however, one of the ninja swords suddenly was embedded into _it's _head, making the body go limp. Kaede had happened to see Shizuka fall and the corpse still moving, so had stopped progressing at the landing, throwing the blade skillfully to save her.

Kouta moved down the few stairs and helped Shizuka up, looking towards the blade still sticking from the head and thought about grabbing it; when he looked back towards Kaede however, he had started moving on, obviously unconcerned with the blade. On top of that, Kouta could see that the blade was dull, and chipped in many places, so he left it, and ushered Shizuka on before following at the rear once more.

When they finally made it to the top floor, Rei took the lead, the group not slowing their pace in the least as they moved down the halls; the communications office was a bit harder to get to, but when they did, Kouta was relieved to see the door was open. He and Takashi checked the room first, seeing no shadows of _them _inside the dark room; even so, just to make sure, Kouta lit up the under slung flashlight of the MP5 and did a quick sweep of the room.

"It's clear" Kouta said, giving the thumbs up and they started entering the office.

"We may have cleaned the station out by now, but stay on alert." Saya commented as she looked around the room; now that they were there, she was a bit skeptical they'd find much, since the EMP had wiped out the all the computers, and the files would be more than likely dealing with criminal cases, nothing much about the situation they needed information on.

"Looks like everything's out in here too..." Rei said with disappointment as she looked around to all the black screens.

"I don't think the police were prepared for an EMP either..." Kouta added with a bit of sarcasm towards the police; however, Alice noticed something out of place.

"That computer over there's on though..." she said, pointing over towards the only light coming from a computer screen Kouta and Takashi had missed in the initial sweep of the room; Saya was rushing over to the lit screen before Alice could even finish speaking, pushing Kouta out of the way as she did.

Saya looked down at the screen as the group crowded around her, a bar on the screen reading 'Alert!' in big red letters flashing on the screen.

"The J-Alert system is still working!" Saya yelled, hardly able to contain herself as she started hitting the the keys and looking through various windows that popped up.

"J-Jay-Alert...? What's that?" Takashi asked, a bit out of the loop, though it seemed only Rei, Saya and Kouta really knew what it was.

"J-Alert! It's Japan's nation-wide emergency warning system!" Kouta explained hastily, excited from one of the uses behind it. "It's an automated satellite-based alert system made to alert and provide information to citizens in the case of emergencies from earthquakes to missile strikes. It's EMP-proof!"

Where is it getting its electricity from? Is there a nearby power plant that still working?" Saeko asked, even though she did expect anyone to know, as she set the shine katana down, pulling out a tissue from a box on a table to clean her Murata sword of blood first, before sheathing it and doing the same to the other.

"It's probably running on back-up battery power. The machine's on alert so it must last pretty long." Saya relied, her answer good enough for Saeko and the others.

"Oh, like they have in hospitals." Shizuka said, understanding better that way; Saya didn't reply as she continued looking through the windows popping up on the computer, closing most out almost as quickly as she opened a new one.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Rei asked as she took a seat, watching Saya become more and more frustrated with the computer.

"Of course; it's designed to be so simple, a child could use it!" Saya bit back before finally letting out an aggravated yell, Alice taking the moment to examine what she had helped find.

"What's wrong?" Takashi asked after Saya's outburst.

"There's too much stuff in here that we don't care about, and I can't find the search function!" Saya replied as Alice hummed to herself, and pushed down a key, bringing up a new window and pointing to it, obviously pleased with being able too, but Saya was unamused. "What do you think you're doing, munchkin!"

"I couldn't help it!" Alice replied with watery eyes for being scolded by Saya.

"...it's almost a natural instinct to push a button when you see it, Saya..." Takashi muttered, preventing and further yelling from Saya; she looked towards the screen to fix whatever Alice had done, but instead was stopped at what she had opened.

"Hey..." Saya muttered, her eyes widening as she scanned the page; she suddenly patted Alice on the head as she started reading the page more carefully. "Nice going, munchkin!"

"W-what?" Alice asked in wonder, unknowing what she had just done.

"Saya?" Takashi said, waiting for an explanation.

"The SDF is implementing an evacuation of Tokonsou!" Saya said, turning to the group with a grin, it taking a second for it to sink in to the group, and there was soon surprise and a new hope put into the group.

"'Evacuation'? It's not 'back-up'?" was Takashi's questioning reply, having expecting the military to assist, but not by moving the people.

"You've seen how bad thing are around here. The only choice they have is to get the survivors out of here!" Saya replied, and Takashi nodded, knowing as well as all of them the numbers of _them _outside.

"So what's their plan, Saya?" Kouta asked. "Where is it being held?"

To answer, Saya turned back to the computer, and began reading on further before replying, relaying the information as she read on.

"It'll be at...I'll be damned. It'll be at Shintoko Third Elementary School!" Saya said, looking back to Takashi to see his shock. "That sure is convenient...let's see...it's only gonna be for a few hours, since the SDF are so tightly stretched, and it will be...

Saya was suddenly silent, and the rest became worried.

"Saya, when is it?" Takashi asked, fearing he already knew the answer; he hopped in vain that it wouldn't have been proper to say 'When _was _it', but he new Saya's reply would crush that hope.

"...yesterday." Saya muttered, crushing the hopes that had just formed; Saya was silent, reading on before she suddenly brightened up. "But that wasn't the last one! It's the only scheduled one, but the SDF will be making as many trips in and out of the area effected by the EMP for at least two weeks, maybe even longer, depending on how long resources last! We just gotta hope we're in the area when one happens then..."

"I see..." Takashi said, grateful that there was some good new, even though their hopes were nearly crushed into the ground; he then turned to Rei with a light smile. "Is there anywhere in the station your dad may be?"

"Y-yeah!" Rei said with a nod, the fact not lost on her that her father may still be alive in the station somewhere. "His office! It's on the floor below us!"

* * *

The group had moved down the stairs, which were clear this time and Saya mentioning they may have cleared out the building by now came to mind; as soon as they were on the floor under the one they were previously on, Rei took the lead rather quickly, quicker than Takashi or Kaede would have like, even though they understood why Rei was is such a hurry.

Kaede quickly ran to keep up with Rei to back her up if she was suddenly attacked, with the group trying to keep up as best they could without making so much noise. Rei came to a skidding halt outside of one of the doors, Kaede nearly running past her, and, before anyone could stop her, threw open the door with a loud bang.

"Dad!" she yelled, throwing caution to the wind in hopes of finding her father; needless to say, she was crushed when she was met with an empty room.

"Rei..." Kaede said softly as he stepped behind her, placing his hands on her shoulder, feeling them trembling slightly.

"There's...no one here..." Rei said, not wanting to believe it herself.

Takashi soon joined them in the room, already guessing that the room was empty from the sudden silence that had followed Rei's outburst.

"Saeko, can you keep on the look out?" Takashi asked in a low tone, looking back towards Saeko, then over to Kouta and Saya. "Let's see if we can find anything that might tell us Rei's father is alive; Kouta, Saya, you two help as well."

Takashi left Kaede and Rei, knowing now he was probably the better one to comfort Rei at the moment.

"None of the computers are working in here." Saya stated the known fact because of the computer they had just found working, keeping her tone mostly flat and her words few for Rei's sake, for now at least.

Rei had left Kaede's presence and had walked over to her dad's desk, his being able to be told apart by the picture of Rei and her mom, at the opening ceremony when she started high school, judging by the background of blooming cherry blossoms, Kaede and Takashi watching her. Takashi finally looked away, over to Kouta and saw Shizuka bump into a chalkboard, thanks to her huge chest; he didn't give it much though at the time, his attention on Kouta who was looking at a notebook.

"Did you find something, Kouta?" he asked.

"Looks like a guide to helping survivors, but it was written in a hurry, and it's nothing we don't already know." Kouta said, setting the notebook down again; a sudden slamming made them look over to Kaede.

"Where the fuck is he!" Kaede yelled out behind clenched teeth after slamming his fist into a table, knocking over a coffee mug and spilling cold coffee as it broke; the outburst had been caused from Rei's down-trodden look, tears in her eyes for her father that they had no idea where he was.

"I-is this something...?" Shizuka cut through the tension nervously, drawing the attention to the chalkboard she had run into as she rubbed the breasts that had made the find; the chalkboard had been flipped, so the writing on the other side that was hidden could now be read since it had been unveiled by Shizuka's breast when it had hit it.

The board read 'All survivors to Shintoko Third Elementary School' and had been written hastily, but Rei recognized the handwriting instantly.

"That's...that's my dad's handwriting!" Rei choked out happily, knowing her father was alive now and he knew about the evacuation, so he was more than likely there, helping coordinate the evacuation; Rei unexpectedly jumped at Kaede, hugging him tightly in relief for her father. "Thanks god he's alive! I'm so happy!"

There was a mix of emotions among the group, but they mostly were happy for Rei, relieved that she at least knew for a fact one of her parents were alive an well. Saya, who was the only other one that knew her loved ones were more than likely still alive, had her arms crossed, and looked away from the sight with a huff.

Kouta noticed it, and decided to address it before said something, like she was known to do.

"U-uhm, Saya-san..." Kouta muttered, his easily intimidated nature making him nervous to say anything directly to her about the matter, but he didn't have to.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill the mood this time." Saya replied, turning her back and sighing, even though she could say plenty that could reduce Rei back to the state she had been in seconds before; she suddenly changed the subject, pulling the Luger P08 from her side where it had been hanging, pretty much uselessly for the past few days, and pressed the barrel to Kouta's forehead. "But this...!"

Kouta nearly shat himself, stumbling back and flailing his arms around as he sobbed.

"W-what? I haven't been bitten or anything!" he cried out, Saya looking at him with a raised eyebrow, even if she was exercising trigger discipline with her finger laying across the trigger guard, nowhere near the trigger.

"It's not that; I haven't even fired this thing once because I don't want to waste bullets or make any loud unnecessary noises..." Saya said, letting her arm lower slightly, keeping as much of her usual high-and-mighty attitude as she could, even with her next words. "Lately, I've been feeling useless and I don't like it!"

"It's not like I can shoot much either..." Kouta replied, giving a relieved sigh at the reason for behind held at gunpoint. "Besides, you fight in your own way-"

"I've been watching you!" Saya cut in sharply, getting Kouta's attention right away. "I just...I want to fight too! Like you do, Kouta!"

Kouta was silent for a second, letting Saya's words sink in before pulling the recently obtained MP5 off, and held it out to Saya.

"You should use this then." he said, holding the gun out until Saya took it. "The MP5 series actually recoils shortly after the first shot has been fired, so it's perfect for aiming at close range. This one's only semi-automatic, so you won't have any trouble of hitting your mark, or wasting ammunition."

"Kouta..." Saya muttered, looking down at the gun, remembering the fuss Kouta had made over the gun before, when they had found it, but he seemed perfectly fine with giving it to her.

"Just don't rely on the suppressor too much. Er, silencer, I mean." Kouta added. "The bullets aren't subsonic, so they'll still make sound as you shoot, so you'll still attract attention to yourself...let's see...what else...?"

Saya smiled softly at Kouta's efforts to tell her everything she needed to know about the gun and, after a second of though, she decided she shouldn't let her mother's Luger P08 go to waste; she pulled it off her shoulder, and tossed it Kouta's way, who caught it, stuttering out a 'What?'

"You can hold onto that, but I'll kill ya if you lose it!" Saya said, getting a 'Yes ma'am as she winked at Kouta, and the two grinned at each other; their little bonding moment was broken shortly by Takashi, however.

"Uhh, are you two about finished?" he asked; even Rei and Kaede had settled down by now.

Saya jumped slightly, and pushed Kouta away from her, even though they weren't that close; none the less, Rei, Shizuka, and even Saeko were giving Saya sly looks.

"W-what!" Don't look at me like that!" Saya yelled, her face flustered from the looks.

"Ahem..." Takashi cleared his throat, waiting for the attention to be on him before continuing, in a leader-mode. "Rei's dad probably was evacuated, an my mom was too, so we can check off Shintoko Third Elementary from our list now, however, we will still stop at Rei's house, to see if her mom is there or not. After that, it's Kaede's house, then my own; we'll worry about trying to join up with the SDF to be evacuated after that!"

Takashi was pleased, if not a little surprised, at the ready and agreeing looks he received, even from Alice.

"So, if everyone's clear," Takashi continued, unaware of Zeke wandering over to him. "Let's get outta here!"

The firm look on Takashi's face faded when he felt his pant leg suddenly become wet with warm liquid, and was horrified to see Zeke peeing on his leg.

"Whoa, whoa!" Takashi jumped away from the yellow stream, and Alice started scolding Zeke; it hardly made Takashi feel any better that the dog was being scolded thanks to the way Alice was going about doing so.

"Bad dog, Zeke! Onii-chan's leg is not a pole!" Alice pouted as Zeke stopped, now that Takashi moved away; laughter rung out among the group at Zeke's antics, and Takashi's developing pride as a leader was already dented.

"Maybe I'm not cut out for this after all..." Takashi muttered to himself. "That was so lame..."

"No, you're perfectly suited for it, Takashi." Saeko said with a smile.

"I don't think we could have asked for anyone better!" Rei added cheerfully.

"Yeah, not only are you a fearless leader, you're also a porta-potty the dog too..." Kaede muttered in a teasing tone under his breath, though everyone heard him; Saya was the first to burst out laughing, shortly followed by the rest when they couldn't hold it back, and it was Rei's turn to scold Kaede, even though it wasn't very convincing with her trying to hold her laughter in.

Takashi sighed lightly, his lips twitching into a smile at the humor in Kaede's joke even though it was at his own expense and easily forgiving Kaede for the crack; maybe the days ahead of them in the world of the walking dead would be just a little more bearable if it continued to be with everyone...

* * *

The group was on the road once again, heading for the nearest place on their list; it was then reviled in the humvee, that Kaede lived alone for the time, while his mother lived elsewhere, and that was where they were headed.

They were about a quarter of the way, from Kaede's directions, when they hit trouble; the humvee's engine sputtered, and thick, black smoke began rising from the vents in the hood. The back draft of the smoke caused Saya and Kouta, who had been sitting outside of the porthole together, had to come back inside to get away from the suffocating smoke.

"Damn...don't tell me it's going out now..." Takashi muttered, nodding to Shizuka who was getting increasingly worried about the smoke blocking the window; with that, Shizuka pulled off to the side of the road, and the engine gave another bang as she shut the truck off.

Finding to would be easier to simply assume from now one, Takashi looked back to Kaede, who shrugged, leaving everything behind other than the M870 shotgun and got out of the humvee. Takashi motioned to Kouta to get out as well before sliding out of the drivers side himself, and the three walked over to the front of the truck.

"Now, I don't know much about cars..." Kaede warned, looking at the horrible smelling black smoke rising from the hood with a wrinkled nose and Kouta took to keeping an eye around the area, Rei popping up from the porthole to do the same; luckily, there weren't many of _them _in the area, so they were safe for awhile. "But even if I did, I doubt there would be anything I could do about this..."

Kaede popped open the hood and hopped back as a huge cloud of smoke rose, coughing at the stench. There wasn't much he could see with the smoke, but after awhile it cleared enough so he could see inside, covering his nose with his hand.

"Well?" Takashi asked impatiently; he knew he had no grounds to be snappy with Kaede, but their only form of transportation dieing was the last thing he was hopping for.

"Well, there's not much to say, really." Kaede replied, shortly, just as annoyed with the truck dieing as Takashi, since he too knew what that would mean for them; he stepped aside into Shizuka's view, and motioned for her to try starting the humvee.

When she did, engine rumbled and turned over before emitting a thick cloud of smoke before dieing out without starting. Shizuka tried again only to get the same result, and Kaede motioned for her to stop.

"I dunno exactly what's wrong, but it's dead." Kaede said with a sigh, looking over to Takashi. "There's no way I could fix this even if I knew how to; the best thing is to ditch the truck and continue on foot..."

Takashi let out a frustrated growl before heading back to the truck to give the bad news to the group and move on before _they _caught up with them, wondering just how they were going to continue like this; they had quite bit of stuff to carry, and pretty far destination to get too. Things had been up and down since the Outbreak, but this defiantly was one of the greater downs for them, and they all knew it as Takashi conveyed the situation to the rest of the group.

Before the first of _them_ got to the humvee, the group was already on the move, carrying what they could and leaving the rest with the humvee; Saeko and Alice were the only two not now carrying a full backpack as they moved, with Takashi and Saeko in front, Rei and Kaede on either side of Alice and Shizuka, and Kouta and Saya taking up the rear so their non-combatants were well protected as they continued on foot in a dead silence, for more reasons than just avoiding _them_.

Luck just didn't seem on their side anymore as even the weather started looking dark and gloomy as dark clouds started forming over head; ah, they joys of Japan's unpredictable weather...

"Does anyone know if there's any convenience stores in the area? We're gonna need some ponchos if it starts raining..." Kouta finally asked, carrying the same backpack full of ammo; Takashi was carrying another back pack, Rei was carrying one of the duffel bags of odds and ends, Kaede had his messengers bag and the Baikal shotgun he had brought from the police station, Saya was carrying another backpack of ammo and the M870, just in case she needed it if something happened to the MP5, and Shizuka was carrying her medical bag.

All that, with their normal equipment on top, and the group wasn't in the best of moods.

"I think there might be one up ahead a few blocks..." Kaede said, this being somewhat of a familiar area to him. "And we should probably grab something to eat there too, if there's anything..."

Takashi simply nodded to the words, noticing too that it may rain soon but trying not to acknowledge it at all, having enough problems to think about now with the humvee gone. It wasn't long before the convenience store came into view, a bit sooner than Kaede had expected, but that was better than later or never.

Ever cautious, the group approached the store; on the outside, it looked empty, but they knew better. Kaede and Kouta were tasked with checking the building before the rest entered shortly after Kaede dispatched one of _them _that was inside with one of the two remaining ninja swords, having dulled the other two out of use back at the police station.

As was becoming a habit, the group searched the store when it was clear to enter for anything useful, in this case, eight ponchos and some food, mostly snack food and warm drinks. While searching for weapons would be useless, Takashi did look around for anything useful in the store as those who were hungry munched, mostly to waste time since he himself wasn't hungry at all; the only thing that may come in handy would be lighters, so he grabbed a few off the shelves and tossed them into his bag.

"Oi, Takashi." Kaede said as he walked over towards their leader with his arms crossed behind his head. "Listen, I know some shortcuts through the residential areas we could take to get there faster, but I don't know how crowded it might be, so we might run into some trouble, if we decide to go that way..."

"Anything that will get us off the streets quicker; do you think there's any possibility of finding a new vehicle that works along the way?" Takashi asked, at least a bit relieved they would be getting to their destination a bit quicker then originally anticipated.

"No clue; I don't know that much about the area." Kaede said with a sigh, waving his hand in front of his face in response to Takashi's question. "Sorry Takashi."

"No...I was asking too much..." Takashi replied after a slight pause, knowing it was foolish to ask so much from Kaede and there was no way Kaede could provide such information, but the fact still rested heavily on Takashi's shoulders; it was extremely dangerous and time consuming to travel far distances like they would need to on foot with _them _dominating the streets, especially if there were still more of those dog ones that Kaede and Rei had encountered running around too. "I should be the one apologizing, Kaede."

Kaede waved off the apology with a grin, stating it was unnecessary before wandering around the store with a similar intention as Takashi had before, not finding much else but some batteries and grabbed a few lighters to hold himself.

"Alright guys, we're moving out in five minutes." Takashi finally said, seeing as how most of the group had already eaten enough for themselves; with their departure time set, the group filled any remaining room in their backpacks with water bottles.

When the group was ready, Takashi motioned for Kaede to take the lead so they could take the mentioned shortcuts, and gave the group a quick warning.

"Kaede's gonna take us through the residential areas to get to his mom's house faster, but there's no telling what we may face out there, so keep on your toes people." Takashi said, motioning Saeko up with Kaede. "Saeko-san, you stay at the head with Kaede; I'll take his spot at the side."

As they exited the convenience store, they fell into what could be called their standard formation, though right now, Kaede and Takashi's positions were switched momentarily. As they moved into formation, Takashi gave the hand signal he had learned from Kouta awhile ago that meant to move out, and Kaede started leading them towards the narrow, maze like streets in between houses in the residential area standard of Japan.

Since the streets were narrow, hardly enough for two cars to pass through, they did encounter many wreaks as they moved; luckily, none of them obstructed their progress too much and they were able to move on relatively quickly. Surprisingly, there wasn't many of _them _around, unlike their previous times in areas such as this, where the streets were nearly packed with the undead.

Any that happened to get it the way had _their _unnatural life ended at the edge of Saeko's blade, the relatively close-quarters being perfect for her katanas, and she didn't have to share the kills with anyone but herself as Kaede was too overburdened with things to be able to fight, and to get to Takashi or Rei would mean getting past Kaede...

Keeping this in mind, whenever they came in contact with a horde of _them, _Saeko made sure to wipe them out before they had a chance before getting any further to the group; the rest were thankful for Saeko's skill in destroying _them _so fast and before they had to deal with _them, _but it was still a little stomach-turning to see her slice the once human bodies to shreds, Shizuka taking up leading Alice with her hands that were also nearly permanently covering the younger girl's eyes.

It seemed they were making pretty good progress through the residential area when they reached a road block, literally, that stopped them. Three cars had collided and completely blocked the path they had just turned down; under normal-ish standards, meaning that they weren't lugging around a small armory, they'd easily be able to get over the pile-up, and onto the other side, but there was no chance in their current situation.

"Is there anyway to go around?" Takashi asked of Kaede as the teen tried looking for an easy way over. "Like backtracking or something?"

"Yeah, but not by going back." Kaede replied, giving up on trying to find away to get the group and all their luggage over the pileup, and looked back towards the main street the one they currently were on branched off of. "We just head back there, an go down to the next street; we should end up at the same place in the end."

Takashi nodded, pleased that the set back wasn't too serious, and since the others had been near enough to listen, they were quick to start heading back the way they came; on the main street, they fell back into the proper positions with Kaede and Saeko leading them once more.

Even though he hadn't actually counted all of _them _Saeko had cut down, Takashi could tell from the carnage left behind that there was quite a few of _them, _which was expected since they were outside walking, and not zooming by in their humvee anymore, so Takashi could notice that, even before they had run into the crash, _they _were suddenly thinning out; now, there was none left behind after succumbing to Saeko's blade.

Endless possibilities passed through Takashi's head, especially with the thought of the more undead dogs running around; he wasn't to worried about _them, _since he knew how low their intelligence was and could easily assume it wouldn't get any higher, but the dogs' mobility and greater scenes worried Takashi, if they were in the area and causing the other undead to stay clear. Even though he had nothing to base such a theory on, he still took it into consideration and was extra alert.

Kaede and Saeko had also noticed the thinning in numbers, as did Saya and Kouta, and they were also extra alert while Rei kept cautious, but wasn't any more alert than before; like it mattered, as they soon found out.

They came to the next street Kaede had mentioned and turned down, their hearts suddenly jumped at what awaited them.

"Tell me I'm not seeing things..." Takashi muttered as he looked in the distance, seeing a Komatsu LAV, knowing the SDF's main armored form of transport, sitting in the middle of the street, armed with a standard M2 Browning .50 cal.

"It's there alright." Kaede replied, just as excited and surprised as everyone else, but tried not to get his hopes up; the Komatsu LAVs were not EMP proof. "Lets go check and see if it works!"

Takashi didn't even need to give a proper order before they rushed over to the seemingly abandoned vehicle, keeping an eye out even in their excitement; the first thing Kaede noticed upon nearing the Komatsu was the uncountable amount of spend shells laying around the truck, spanning to the large .50 call to rifle round to small-arms shells and a few shotgun shells; the second thing he saw was the mass amount of blood on the ground, both telltale signs of a struggle that became a last stand.

The third thing he noticed was the body of a soldier laying a short way from the open side door of the Komatsu, and the body of the gunner at the Browning. Kaede went to the body while Kouta went straight to the truck to check out the expected stored weapons in the LAV while Takashi went to check the front seat of the truck, motioning Shizuka over to him, the others taking up watch posts around the Komatsu.

"Will it work?" Alice asked chimed, as she walked over to where Shizuka had slid into the driver's side, Takashi standing outside of the door.

"Not sure yet, Alice-chan..." Shizuka replied as she looked towards the ignition, frowning when she didn't see the keys; her expression changed however, when she saw them laying on the ground below the wheel, leaning down to grab them.

Outside, Kaede hand pushed the corpse laying away from the Komatsu over, the helmet rolling off, and saw the only wound on him was a bullet hole in the head. The thought of friendly fire came to mind, but it was ruled out, since it was a direct shot into the soldier's skull, and intentional shot.

While Kaede was examining the body and Shizuka got into the Komatsu, Kouta was trying to get the gunner's corpse out of the porthole; it was a bit difficult, since he had been gripping the Browning's handle's tightly when he died, but Kouta got him off when he squeezed up with the body, ignoring the fact that it was a corpse, and pried his hands free.

When they finally gave, Kouta lost his footing and fell back into the Komatsu with the body falling on top of him; before he could push it off however, the cause of death suddenly became apparent as the body stirred. Kouta's first reaction was panic as the newly risen zombie reached for him, groaning, and that caught the others' attentions.

"Kouta...!" Takashi yelled, raising the Benelli only to find there would be no way of hitting _it _but not Kouta with the gun having been familiarized with the spread of a shotgun shell over the time of using one; Shizuka gasped and dropped the keys again, at a loss for what to do, Alice screamed out Kouta's name in fear, Saya froze up, pale as a sheet, and Rei and Kaede turned in horror, too far to do anything themselves.

Purple hair fluttered as Saeko rushed the short distance to the Komatsu, Kouta holding _it _off with his legs just long enough for her to get there, and grabbed _it _by the back of the armor vest _it _had worn when living. With the help of a hard kick from Kouta, Saeko pulled the corpse off of him and flung it out of the truck; all guns were instantly on _it, _but Kaede was suddenly in the way of anyone shooting _it. _

He kicked _it _down when _it _tried getting up, and painted the barrel of his WA2000 towards _its _head; with the resulting gunshot, Takashi turned calmly to Shizuka, lowering his shotgun.

"Shizuka-sensei, please try starting the truck." he said, startling the woman before she scrambled for the keys again; he then took a look in the back to see Kouta laying back where he had fallen, panting hard and very pale. "You alright, Kouta?"

"I-I'll live..." Kouta wheezed back, Alice jumping into the Komatsu and hugged him, bawling her eyes out over the close call; Kouta comforted her and Takashi turned back to Shizuka, who had gotten the keys and were putting them into the ignition.

They all held their breath, save for Kouta who'd probably die if her did, as Shizuka turned the key; there were cheers all around, silent or not, when the engine roared to life, and Takashi waved his hand towards the truck.

"Alright everyone, pile in!" Takashi yelled, no longer caring if they attracted any of _them, _they had another bad-ass mode of transportation, and this one was better armed with the Browning.

"I call gun!" Kaede called before Kouta could fully move out of the way as people started to pile in, scrambling for the porthole and tossing his bag into the back with the Baikal shotgun; this got the otaku moving again, but just a little too late, Kaede looking down at him from the hole. "Maybe next time, Kouta-chan! Try and dig me up some more ammo though...it's dry."

Kouta almost denied, until an ulterior motive hit him as he looked back to the gun storage in the back, spotting something highly out of place among the standard SDF issue Howa Type 64s; a bullpup design sniper rifle with two magazines attached to it.

Kouta nearly wet himself for the second time that day as the group settled in the truck and Shizuka started off down the street.

"A-a-a DSR-1? Here? In a JSDF Komatsu LAV!" Kouta rambled on, picking up the gun and ogling the like the group hadn't seen before; they got that it was a long shot that they'd actually find a gun like that in use by the SDF, but it was still a bit scary to see him looking at the gun like he would make love to it soon.

"Uh, Kouta? Ammo?" Kaede said, peeking into the LAV's interior, his reaction to the gun more like the rest of the groups, even though he was the most understanding of Kouta's habit; forgetting the fact that Kaede stole the gun before he could get to it, Kouta simply handed Kaede a case of ammo for the Browning before continuing muttering over the gun and raping it with his eyes and hands once more.

While he was down there, he gave Shizuka a few directions for the upcoming roads, saying he'd drop by and give more directions when need be before standing back out of the porthole, reloading the Browning, and looking forward, able to see his mother in his mind's even and hoping with everything he had that she was alright.

Inside the truck, Rei looked up through the porthole at Kaede, feeling the same pain as he and hoped the best like he did for her...

**Chapter 11, end**

**Author's notes: By the by, I'm going to be taking a little break from this story, so I can concentrate on my other fics I'm working on; don't worry, I won't forget about it though; I like writing this one too much to stop, but I just have to get some of these other ideas out before they flutter away...**

***= I can't find much information on it, so sorry that I didn't offer much information on it, but look it up on an image search and you'll find it.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's notes/response: Thank you too all who have reviewed and favored this story, and a special thanks to Otaku-SIG for reminding me of that; I as well think it's been long enough since there was a little heat between the characters, and so, this chapter's gonna have some sexual content, more so than just makin' out. So consider that your warning, and enjoy!**

**Chapter 12: House Call of the DEAD**

Even after only finding the Komatsu less than a hour ago, the group mostly of teenagers had gotten plenty use to the new armored transport to the point that Rei had squeezed up top with Kaede, and the rest sitting on the inside; Saeko and Takashi sitting nice and comfortable together with Saya sitting with as much space as she could afford in the cramped truck and Kouta sitting in the front with Shizuka driving, and Alice sitting on his lap with Zeke on hers.

Up top, Kaede looked over at Rei as the surrounds became increasingly familiar and gave her some short directions; she ducked back into the Komatsu and relayed the directions to Shizuka for Kaede, a little system they had gotten use to during the trip so far.

"Kaede says we're almost there..." Rei said with a smile, leaning over the driver's seat to speak to Shizuka better, since she thought it would be better not to disturb Saeko, who had stated dozing off on Takashi's shoulder. "Just keep heading down this road and turn left three streets down, then right another two down. It should be on that street, he says."

"A right then a left...?" Shizuka muttered, already having trouble remembering the route, and looked back at Rei with a hopeful smile, which turned into a slight frown as Rei shook her head; Rei and Shizuka both then looked over to Kouta.

"Left turn after three blocks, right after two more. Got it" Kouta replied with a serious nod, then smiled. "We won't be getting lost anytime soon, Miyamoto-san. Right, Alice-chan?"

"Yup~!" the girl said, happily raising her hands as Zeke barked as well. "Leave it to us to get to Kae-nii-chan's house!"

Rei smiled at the young girl, not even bothering correcting her that it was his mother's house they were going to and left the navigation to them before moving back through the Komatsu. She rolled her eyes at how peaceful Takashi and Saeko looked together, even with Saeko drooling in her sleep again, and pulled on Kaede's pants leg.

Not giving him much time to register, Rei pulled herself up with him, passing along his back and making him blush as her breasts pressed tightly against his back. Rei sat on the rim of the porthole behind Kaede, taking a look around since she was now back at her original position.

"I told 'em; Kouta and Alice will make sure Shizuka-sensei doesn't get us lost." Rei reported to Kaede, quite comfortable sitting behind him than she was sitting beside him like before; this way, she could even lean against him if she wanted, taking Saeko and Takashi's example of being close. "I swear, that woman's hopeless sometimes, even if she is an adult..."

"Yeah, really..." Kaede muttered with a light chuckle at how unreliable Shizuka could be with even the most basic of things. "She has her good aspects too though, neh?"

"Yeah, I guess," Rei shrugged, leaning against Kaede's back, feeling his body relaxing under her touch without tensing first; Rei was pleased that he seemed to be getting use to the contact between them, her mind drifting on to the possibility of more intimacy between her and Kaede, figuring there was little doubt that Saeko and Takashi's relationship had gotten to that level.

Of course, Takashi and Saeko hadn't gone as far as Rei expected yet, but Rei was basing her assumptions on Saeko's constant giving ins to her carnal urges on the battle field of the dead. Remembering the two down on the inside of the Komatsu, Rei got comfortable against Kaede, watching the road that would lead them to their destination.

**

* * *

**

With Shizuka's driving, it wasn't too long before were driving down the street where the house was on; Kaede and Rei had gone down into the Komatsu with the others shortly before, and Takashi woke Saeko as they approached the targeted house.

"It's this one right here." Kaede said, leaning over the passenger's side of the Komatsu and pointing out the familiar house where he had lived at for so long before he had moved out on his own, against his will; Kaede tried not to think of his past so much when there were pressing matters in his present, and patted Kouta on his shoulder. "Let's go open the gates..."

The house was a two story building, surrounded with a wall and, unlike the first and only house they had stayed at so far, the garage was inside the surrounding walls with two gates; one leading into the garage and the other, a smaller one to get in and out of the yard. Of course, Kaede meant the larger gate, and Shizuka pulled the Komatsu to a temporary stop.

Kouta was the first one out with the MP5 held tightly to his shoulder as he checked out the surrounding area, which was clear for now; relaying the information with the usual call of 'Clear!', Kaede was soon to follow him out with his WA2000 in his hands and the Baikal still strapped to his back.

While the others waited in the Komatsu, ready to jump out of things got bad outside, Kaede and Kouta rushed over to the gate; with a light testing tug, they found that it wouldn't budge from that side, so they switched to plan B. Kouta kept look out for any of _them, _outside or inside the gates, while Kaede slung the WA2000 on his back and scaled the gate, falling down onto the other side.

He disappeared from view for a moment when he ducked towards where the wall started, and the motor that would have opened the gate was at; a few minutes passed by before he came back into view, and he, with Kouta's help, manually pulled open the gate for the Komatsu.

Kouta waved to Shizuka after joining Kaede on the other side of the wall; when the Komatsu was inside the walls, Kouta turned, expecting to see Kaede getting ready to help close the gate, but instead saw Kaede rushing towards the house. Looking past Kaede, Kouta could see what he was in a rush over; the front door was standing wide open.

Kouta refrained from following after him and looked over to the Komatsu to see everyone piling out of the truck, Takashi being one of the firsts and had seen Kaede dart off; he nodded lightly to Kouta and motioned to the gate, then waved Rei towards the house before going to assist Kouta in closing the gate, since it didn't look like there were any of _them _in or around the house. Even so, Takashi had a second though and sent Saeko in as well, knowing she wouldn't hesitate if there were any of the undead in the house, regardless of who _they_ once were.

Rei had quickly caught up with Kaede, who was standing in the kitchen, looking down at something in his hand; with a quick look around, their immediate surroundings seemed fine. No blood, no over turned furniture; everything seemed to be in order.

Her attention was brought to what Kaede was holding in his hand; a piece of paper. Rei approached Kaede, placing a hand on his shoulder as she heard him sigh lightly and tried reading his face; she could tell what was on the paper wasn't horrible news, but it wasn't so great either.

"What does it say, Kaede?" Rei asked in a soft voice.

"My...my brother took her to the Himoura estate..." Kaede replied with a sigh, a huge weight off his shoulders, but the burden was only lightened, not completely removed; Kaede looked over to Rei and smiled at her worried look. "It's alright; she'll be safe there."

"Thanks goodness..." Rei also gave a sigh of relief and hugged Kaede, just as worried for his mother's well being as he was, well, more for Kaede's sake she was, but she was still concerned. "I'm glad you know where your mother is and that she's safe..."

"Yeah...I'm glad...he left a note..." Kaede said, accepting Rei into his arms and hugging her back; with the change in angles it took to hug her, Kaede was now facing the entrance way of the kitchen and saw Saeko, leaning against the wall, which slightly surprised him.

Saeko only gave him a smile and pushed herself off the wall, and left silently, Rei not even having known she was there, and Kaede wouldn't have known any better either if he hadn't moved. Either way, it didn't matter, and Kaede rested his forehead against the top of Rei's, being a few inches taller than her.

"Yours too, Rei...we'll find your parents too..." Kaede said softly, and felt Rei's hold on him tighten; just then, there was a thumping upstairs that made Rei jump slightly, and a small scowl formed on his face before letting Rei go, and reach for his rifle that was laying on the counter.

As for Saeko, after leaving the two to themselves in the kitchen, had joined with the others outside; Kouta and Takashi had finished closing up the gate and sealed it closed by using a fire hose to tie the gate to the other wall, apparently Takashi's handiwork, since he was standing in front of it, scratching the back of his head as he looked at it while Kouta was heading towards the Komatsu again where Saya and Shizuka were unloading a few things from the truck.

"It's not much...we'll have to do something better later on, but it should hold _them _out for now..." Takashi spoke as Saeko approached, and looked over to the house, then to Saeko. "So? How is it in there?"

"It seems clear, Komuro-kun. It appears Himoura-san's brother came and took their mother somewhere else; their family's estate, it seems." Saeko replied, relaying the information she had overheard while she was in the kitchen, unbeknownst to the other two.

"Really now? Kaede had a brother?" Takashi asked, a bit surprised, before recalling Saeko had mentioned something along the lines of Kaede having a brother, back at the Takagi mansion. "Ah, but that's good, right? He knows that at least his mother's safe..."

Takashi, nor none of the rest of the group other than Rei did not know about Kaede's father already having passed, so the question lingered in Takashi's mind on where he might be, since he had taken the role as leader, and was planning on helping reunite the group with their parents if he could. With that on his mind, Takashi also looked up at the sky, seeing it was starting to get dark out, and made a quick and obvious decision.

"We'll be staying here the night, so bring anything else that would be necessary for that in; I'm gonna go talk with Kaede about a few things." Takashi said, loud enough for the others to hear, making Saya groan since she had already unloaded some items that would be needed immediately, had closed up the Komatsu already; her groan was followed by another, less human one, and they all looked over to the gate to see there were already a few of _them _starting to crowd the gates, since that was where the last sound for miles was heard, the first of many more to come.

Takashi inwardly groaned and started for the house, followed by Saeko while Saya, Shizuka, and Kouta started unloading a few other things they might need to stay at a house lacking electricity. As Takashi and Saeko crossed the threshold into the house, they were met with both Rei and Kaede, rifles in hands, exiting the kitchen.

As their eyes met, Kaede motioned to Takashi to keep quite, and pointed upwards to the ceiling as another few thuds were heard, and Takashi quickly pressed the Benelli to his shoulder.

"Is it one of _them?_" Takashi asked in a whisper, only getting a shrug from Kaede as he started for the stairs, heading up first with the WA2000 held firmly, Rei hesitating and letting Saeko and Takashi head up before her and took the rear.

There were four doors on the second floor; Kaede's room when he lived there, his mother's room, a guest bedroom and the bathroom, and Kaede knew each one by heart. The thumping, which was now louder and on their right, was coming from his old room. Kaede lead them up to the door, and looked back momentarily to Takashi; with his nod, Kaede motioned Saeko up in case it was one of _them _and to prevent any gunshots from having to be fired.

Saeko placed her hand on her Murata sword, signaling she was ready; Kaede reached for the door handle and opened it quickly, throwing open the door and raising his rifle just in case. Saeko had her blade halfway out of it's sheath when a white blur soared past her and right at Takashi; whatever it was, it bound off of Takashi after hitting him, making him fall and his finger slip, shooting up at the ceiling before leaping at Kaede, knocking him down as well, only this time, it didn't jump away.

"Kaede!" Rei cried out, she and Saeko, who had her sword fully drawn now, rushed towards Kaede and the white, dog like figure on top of him; with the dog from earlier still in her mind, Rei almost didn't stop her charge with the bayonet, but Kaede's laughter was able to put a halt to the charge, Saeko having stopped before that when she saw what was going on.

"Y-Yuki! I forgot all about you, girl!" Kaede said, happily, as the Akita Inu licked his face excitedly, her tail wagging furiously at being reunited with her master after so long, and after being locked into a room when his mother had been taken away.

Rei and Saeko stood in slight shock, their hearts still pounding from the surprise the dog had caused them, while Takashi finally started getting up from where he fell.

"I need to keep the safety on more often..." Takashi muttered as he looked up at the hole in the ceiling he had caused in surprise, then looked down at Kaede, who was still pinned to the ground by the dog. "Your dog, huh? Almost gave me a heart attack...anything else in the house we should be weary of, Kaede?"

"Eh, no, I don't think so. Sorry, Takashi..." Kaede replied, pushing the dog off of him; regardless, Yuki continued wagging her tail as her master stood, picking his gun up as he did.

There were fast footsteps up the stairs, and Kouta soon joined them with the MP5, quickly sweeping the area in a full combat-ready position, before noticing the four just standing there, and the dog, which was new to him.

"H-huh? I heard gunfire, didn't I...?" he blinked, looking from Takashi to Rei to Kaede, then back to Takashi, obviously more than a little confused.

"Yeah...um, that was my fault..." Takashi said, scratching the back of his head; Kouta blinked, it slowly dawning on him, and sighed. "I, uh...Kaede's dog surprised me."

As if on cue, Yuki made herself known by going over and sniffing at Kouta and wandered to the others in the hall, getting use to the new people quite easily for an Akita. When she came to Rei, she knelt down and pet Yuki, and they got along quite well.

Having heard all he needed to know, Kouta drifted off downstairs, somewhat disappointed in the lack of action, and at Takashi's clumsiness, giving him the fact that he was still pretty new to using guns, but firing on accident like that was still enough to make the gun otaku grumble to himself.

Takashi watched Kouta retreat for awhile before looking back towards the others; Rei was still petting Yuki, and so was Kaede. When he looked towards Saeko, he found her looking right at him, silently reminding him of a more pressing matter. Takashi swallowed all hesitation and looked mostly at Kaede.

"Since it's going to be dark in a few hours, we're staying the night here." Takashi said in the most leaderly way he could muster, asserting himself and waiting for any backlash he may get from Kaede for ordering the group they would be staying in what was essentially his house; whatever Takashi was expecting, it wasn't what he got.

"Alright, fine by me; there's a balcony in the guest bedroom, so I'll suggest we take turns on look out while the others sleep. The girls can use my mom's room and the guest bedroom..." Kaede said, not even looking at Takashi as he spoke and pointed out the designated rooms as he mentioned them. "...you and Kouta can take turns resting in my room; I'll sleep on the couch."

"Ah, that's not necessary" Rei said, looking up suddenly. "Can't you squeeze in somewhere with _someone_?"

Kaede nor Takashi really caught it, but Saeko heard it clear as if Rei had actually spoken the words: Can't you squeeze in bed with _me_?

Kaede shook his head after a slight hesitation, wondering if her should really take it that way, and Takashi was almost oblivious to that little message, only noticing something wrong with that she said 'someone,' not with he or Kouta, like would be proper in not mixing the sexes up like they all, as far as teenagers go, had hardwired in their heads.

"N-no, it's fine; my bed's not big enough to hold two, especially two guys, and I don't want to make any other other girls uncomfortable..." Kaede replied with a light, nervous chuckle while trying to keep his mind off what may have been subtle hints to something more in their relationship. "Besides, I don't mind sleeping on the couch...I use to do it all the time."

"If...you're really okay with that" Takashi said with a short nod to Kaede, thanking him for allowing them to stay in the house so quickly; Takashi's mind went to who would make the first watch, and since Kouta was up most of the night before, he figured giving him the first watch would give him time to rest later, and the gate situation also came to mind. "Kaede, come with me; we need to do something at the gate. Rei and Saeko-san...please take a look around in the kitchen for something we can eat."

With the directions given, the four teens with Yuki close on their heels started down the stairs, Rei and Saeko breaking off to the kitchen while Takashi, Kaede and Yuki started for the front door, just as Saya came in with a few duffel bags, Shizuka and Alice in close succession, the nurse bringing a few things in as well; the two were surprised at the new dog that came bounding at them, tail wagging, while Alice was overjoyed.

"W-where did this one come from!" Saya asked with Yuki and Zeke's barking in the background as they got to know each other.

"She's Kaede's" Takashi replied with a light sigh, wanting to get to the more pressing matter outside concerning the gates than sit around and argue with Saya about having another dog around. "She'll be better at detecting _them _that Zeke is_, _so we'll be keeping her; Zeke's staying too."

Not sticking around any longer for Saya to respond, Takashi motioned to Kaede to follow him outside; Kouta was already pushing away the corpses drawn by the noise they've already caused with a shovel, and Kaede got the drift of what was wrong once he saw what was holding the gates closed. Not even waiting for Takashi to explain to him, Kaede went over to the Komatsu and started looking around amongst the things that had been in the Komatsu when they found it.

"There should be some chains in the tool shed; go get them" Kaede said to no one in particular as he fished around; since Kouta was busy, Takashi went to go fill the request.

When he came back, he found that Kaede had found whatever it was he was looking for, and was pulling himself onto the wall around the house like had before to get in. Takashi stopped and watched wondering what he was doing; Takashi's question was answered when Kaede pulled the pin from a hand grenade, and threw it down the street before hopping down from the wall.

The resulting explosion almost instantly drew the attention of _them _at the gates, and the followed after the explosion. Grinning, Kaede stood from where he had landed after jumping from the wall, and walked over to Takashi.

"That'll distract 'em for awhile; we have a few more in the truck, so we can use them from time to time to draw attention away from ourselves..." Kaede said as he walked over to Takashi, dusting himself off. "...though, we gotta be careful not to blow anything important up or cause a fire with them."

"Right..." Takashi replied, a bit dazed over Kaede actually throwing a grenade down the street, something he would never dream about doing; Takashi snapped himself out of it though, shaking his head back and forth before holding up the chains he had found in the tool shed. "I found some locks too; there was a ring of keys, so I just brought the whole thing along."

"Ah, that's fine" Kaede replied with a nod as he took the chains, the lock, and the small ring of keys from Takashi as they were handed to him. "Make sure none of those undead bastards get me while I'm doing this, alright?"

The request was directed at both Takashi and Kouta, and so both of them nodded, Takashi setting his shotgun down against the Komatsu before picking up a shovel like Kouta had. The three of them approached the gate, _they _that had been banging at it gone while others passed by, paying no mind to the three living just beyond the gate, having no reason to even suspect they were there.

Being careful not to rattle the chains just yet, Kaede undid the makeshift seal of the garden hose holding the gate closed, making sure Kouta and Takashi were ready to defend him if need be before unraveling the chain and started wrapping it as noiselessly as he could; needless to say, he attracted _their _attention quicker than any of them would have liked.

Takashi and Kouta kept true to their words, keeping the walking corpses at bay while Kaede made quick work of his task, the real time-consumer being finding the right key for the lock; luckily, Takashi and Kouta were able to hold _them _off long enough for him to find it, loosing a shovel in the process.

"There, that'll hold 'em off..." Kaede sighed as he, Takashi and Kouta backed off from the gate, _they _trying to reach through at them but to no avail, the chains holding the gates closed against _them_ the other two obviously relieved to be done with that, Takashi setting down the shovel he had, the lost one having been Kouta's.

"Hopefully..." Takashi said with a light sigh, looking towards Kouta after picking up his shotgun again. "In any case, Kouta, mind being look out first, so you can rest for the night? You stayed up most of the night yesterday, right?"

"W-well, yeah..." Kouta admitted before straightening his posture and saluting Takashi. "Understood; I'll go set up now."

With that, Kouta went to the Komatsu to retrieve the DSR-1 before heading towards the house. Takashi watched him go with a light sigh before looking up at the sky, which was quickly getting darker, darker than Takashi had ever seen thanks to the EMP blast knocking out all electricity, meaning most forms of lights. When he looked back down, Kaede was retrieving his own gun from the Komatsu, having left it in there when he searched for the hand grenade, and that the light from the flashlights the ones inside where using were lighting up the windows.

When Kaede started walking toward him with a case in his hands after closing up the Komatsu, Takashi turned and started for the house again, Kaede following close behind him, closing the door behind them, and locking it just in case.

* * *

Things had been unbelievably rough for what was left of Shido Koichi's group of loyal students he had saved from the school since their time at the Takagi manor; they had lost most of their numbers, leaving only two students and Shido himself, as well as their transportation, leaving the last three to move on foot, keeping as far ahead of _them _as they could.

Luck had momentarily shined on them when Sasaki had found a shotgun in the hands of a freshly mutilated corps, but only with limited ammo; at least they had some protection as they tried finding someplace safe, far away from the overrun mansion, and fast. Of course, that hadn't gone too well, as most of the surrounding area still had many of the undead walking towards the mansion, and they had to go pretty far on foot.

The three's patients where running thin, and the only thing keeping any of them, especially Miku, from complaining was the fact that they where nearly always surrounded by _them _and they had learned pretty quick that the undead were attracted to any sort of noise, something they hadn't had time to learn with all the orgies safely carried out inside the bus, but now, they were out in the open, and barely scraped by without being eaten.

The false loyalty Sasaki had for Shido during those times in the bus was now wearing thin as there was almost nothing Shido could offer him; plenty of times, Sasaki had thought of pointing the shotgun at Shido's back and pulling the trigger, then taking Miku to one of the nearest buildings and fucking her until they were eventually found by the undead, but it conflicted greatly with his want to live, so he refrained.

As for Shido, he was fuming like he had been since the Takagi manor, thinking about nothing but revenge on the students that had ruined his chance at making this hell his personal paradise by turning as many survivors to his side as he could at the manor, having had enough information from his spy that pointed to him being able to do that with his persuasive skills on the weak minded. Shido hardly payed much mind to anything else, being lucky enough not to run into any corpses as he did, and ended up leading the two even further away then they had originally planned.

It was when they where in the middle of the maze of the residential area with none of _them _around that Miku finally said something.

"Shido-sensei...isn't this far enough?" she asked softly, her voice whiny with reason, but it still was quite annoying.

"Yeah, I guess it is, isn't it!" he snapped back before fixing his glasses, and his composure, seeing how his mood may effect the student's will to obey him. "We'll be stopping shortly, so bear with it just a little longer."

Luckily, that complaint had momentarily pulled Shido out of his foul mood long enough for him to start thinking straightly, honestly a bit surprised they had survived that period where they where moving through zombie-infested areas, and on a suitable house to stay in.

He soon spotted one, and lead the two with him and broke into the house. That was yesterday. They spent the day lounging mostly, Sasaki taking the time to do what he wanted to Miku; she wasn't unwilling, but she wasn't as participative like before, but he didn't mind either way, while Shido continued to mull over his anger at Rei and Kaede, and the whole god-cursed group that had defied him at the very beginning of this new world.

It was near the end of the second day the three where at the house when Sasaki suddenly rushed into the room Shido had claimed as his own, shirtless and obviously had been in the middle of using Miku.

"S-Shido-sensei! There's some military truck pulling into one of the other houses!" he yelled, and Shido was on his feet almost instantly; did his luck really change, giving him the very reason that had caused him so much trouble to take his vengeance on?

The two rushed out onto the balcony, and Sasaki pointed to the house a few over, across the street where there indeed was a military truck sitting in the drive way; having seen what the other survivors had been riding in when they had left the mansion, the truck model burned into his memory, Shido almost lashed out at the teen for alerting him on something like this, until he noticed the figure of Komuro Takashi at the gate, then Takagi Saya's pink hair and Marikawa Shizuka's blond hair, as well as her knockers that could be spotted a mile away.

"_It's them!"_

* * *

As they started settling in for the night at the house, Kaede had brought out several lamps that were kept in case of blackouts that easily lit a whole room on it's own. Only a few where put into use though, Saeko again stressing that light, especially now, would attract other survivors like moths, so there was only one in the kitchen and one in the living room; the one in the kitchen for Saeko and Rei, who were making what they could with what they had for a meal while the one in the living room, which was kept dimmed down, was for Kaede, who was disassembling and closely examining the Baikal revolving shotgun he had picked up from the police station while Takashi watched.

As for the others, Kouta was out on look out on the balcony with the DSR-1 with Saya to keep him company and Shizuka was with Alice in the guest bedroom, along with Zeke and Yuki, who had taken a liking to the young girl, getting ready for bed when the time came.

Takashi watched Kaede disassemble the shotgun carefully but, no matter how many time he watched he or Kouta work with the guns, there was just no way he himself would become that skilled with them, Takashi thought as he watched Kaede look down the cylinder tubes, another though coming to mind.

"Why did you decide to bring that one along anyways, Kaede?" Takashi asked, speaking his mind and breaking the silence that had mostly taken over the whole house.

"Well, I'm planning on doing something to it..." Kaede replied, setting the half assembled gun on the coffee table, placing his hand along the stock of the gun as if separating in from the rest of the grip, as well as placing his other at the barrel, shortening it considerably. "Sawing off some length at both ends would make this a perfect close quarters weapon, since you don't have to worry about the pump with this particular gun, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to do something like that, especially without power tools; maybe I just picked it up cause it's a pretty rare gun..."

"I...see..." Takashi muttered, getting the gist of what Kaede was saying, but not fully understanding why Kaede wanted to shorten the gun's length by cutting off the stock of it; as far as he knew, the stock was an important part of the gun, and shouldn't be removed on a whim.

The two let the conversation drop, and Rei walked over to them with a smile.

"The food's ready; can both of you tell Shizuka-sensei and Alice-chan, and take a plate to Saya-san and Hirano-kun?" she asked, looking to both boys with a light smile to see them both nod, Kaede setting down the half assembled shotgun and standing with Takashi.

They followed Rei back to the kitchen where Saeko had already prepared two plates; she and Rei were able to scrounge up enough canned goods to make a sort of stew for dinner, complete with canned meat chunks; it may not have been the most appetizing meal a few weeks ago, but it was the best that could be done now, and the group was grateful to have it.

As per Rei's instructions, Takashi and Kaede took the plates for with them as they started up the stairs; they dropped them off with Saya and Kouta, who both thanked them for bringing their food up, and then went across the hall to where Alice ans Shizuka where. Luckily, Alice hadn't fallen asleep yet, and the four started back down to the kitchen to eat as well.

* * *

After Kaede and Takashi had brought them dinner, Kouta and Saya had taken a short break from scanning the area through the scope of the DSR-1, or the binoculars in Saya's case. They sat on the balcony as they ate, and Kouta was happily rambling on about the MP5 Saya had been recently carrying around.

Saya wasn't much for guns, but she felt it necessary to learn as much as she could about the fire arm suggested to her, and asking the otaku here and now would save face for the genius. Time passed somewhat slowly for the two, since there wasn't much to do, other than listen to Kouta ramble about one of the guns that they were in possession of at the moment, which Saya only put up with the keep the otaku company, since he seemed to really enjoy talking to her when he got started.

And, not like she'd ever admit to it, but she also felt comforted by the otaku's continuous ramblings, and did little to stop them, which got Kouta talking even more; she'd comment on a subject or two, but mostly just listened to him.

Kouta hadn't noticed, but sometime around dark, Rei and Saeko were in the room behind them, but not for long; they both left almost exactly one after the other, leaving the room empty. Saya didn't exactly need to be a genius to figure out where they were going, and looked at Kouta when the door closed after Rei.

The other two had certainly gotten the two better looking of the group, but Saya wasn't envious at all; Kouta had his own traits that made up for his looks, but Saya still didn't consider he and her a couple, like Saeko and Takashi or Rei and Kaede, where who know how far they had gotten; she and Kouta's was still in the early stages, but was strong none the less and though they may not get as far as the other two couples, Saya hardly minded, and neither did Kouta.

In fact, Kouta barely could tell that they could be a couple; sure, things were developing between he and Saya, but he wasn't exactly sure if the genius shared the same like for the other like he did. Not to mention the only physical interaction between them being the brief hug at the mansion, though neither did consider a relationship to be based on physical contact alone.

But Saya decided that tonight, they'd make their first steps down the same road as the others.

Saya examined the area thoroughly through the binoculars, making sure there was nothing around before setting them down on the table, the clanking making Kouta look up at her curiously.

"Get up for a second, Hirano" Saya said, crossing her arms down at the otaku, who was sitting in one of the chairs, positioned facing outwards with the DSR-1 resting on the rails of the balcony.

Kouta knew something was up when Saya used his name instead of the usual insult, but didn't know what; either way, not wanting to piss her off, Kouta did a quick sweep of the area through the scope of the sniper rifle before lowering it and leaning it in the corner before standing at attention.

"Yes, ma'am!" he said sternly, making Saya scoff; it was something her had started doing when it came to light that Saya would be some high ranking intelligence officer if their little group was militarized during one of their little conversations that evening.

"At ease..." Saya's playing along only put Kouta on a higher state of confusion, and he really wanted to know what was going on, but he still relaxed his posture; the fact that she kept playing along, even after that, was a little fun, but still gave Kouta shivers when he would think back on it later on, and not of fear. "It had come to my attention that the other officers of this unit have surpassed us in 'teamwork'...it's our duty to keep up with them to the best of our ability, right, soldier?"

It took a moment for Kouta to answer, stunned that Saya was still using the military context in her speech, and even more so when the meaning of the words fully hit him.

"Y-you mean..?" Kouta asked, not having to hide his shock; with Saeko and Takashi, he could kind of caught on, but Kaede and Rei too?

"Yes, that's right. They've been taking on secret 'missions' without us." now Saya was even starting to startle herself at how well she was playing it off for Kouta's sake, but it looked like it was having more than the desired effect on him. "And so, I propose a training session..."

"O-of course, ma'am! Anything you wish!" Kouta said, his heart beating in his chest; he didn't care what the catch would be, or about anything else now, not even what the training would be.

Only that he would be doing it with Saya.

"Very well then; close your eyes..." Saya ordered, and waited for him to do as he was told before walking to him, feeling his breathing increase when he felt her near him, her breath on his lips now. "...and kiss me..."

Kouta gulped hard, and Saya was mildly surprised he didn't faint from how he heart audibly skipped a beat; but he stayed strong, and puckered up. Saya was the one that almost chickened out though, not because she was disgusted by Kouta; that wasn't it at all. Her own heart was beating a mile a minute, and she had a sudden case of shyness.

It took everything in her not to shy away, and Saya pressed her lips to Kouta's; it was unfortunately awkward at first, neither knowing if the other would be taking charge, so they basically stood there with their lips together until Saya finally pulled back, a little ticked off.

"Y-you're a man aren't you! Shouldn't you be taking the initiative, lard-ass?" Saya shouted, Kouta a bit relieved to have the normal Takashi back, though cowed away from her out burst.

"I-I didn't know I was suppose to! I figured you would..!" Kouta retorted in defense, and Saya crossed her arms, looking away from him; Kouta was crushed at the idea he ruined the moment with Saya, and it showed, he speaking against after a moment of silence. "I'm...sorry. Saya-san..."

"I-it's fine. I'll give you one more chance, Hirano. Don't screw this one up." Saya said after a moment as well, looking back back towards Kouta but not actually making eye contact, a light shade of pink on her cheeks.

And so, they both stepped back up to each other and, after some fidgeting on both sides, they tried again; this time, Kouta was brave enough to place his hand behind Saya's head, a gesture that first made Saya step back until Kouta's lips touched hers, this time, it just happening. Even with just a regular kiss, the two felt electricity from the others lips, and Saya's hands were found draping around Kouta's neck as they moved closer.

As per directed from Saya, Kouta took the initiative this time, his tongue nervously sliding along her lip; she wasn't quite sure at first, but she just let it happen, her lips parting and Kouta's tongue invited her mouth. Not wanting to be completely submissive, Saya's tongue went out to meet his, batting at his before they passed each other, exploring the others mouth passionately; Kouta loved how Saya tasted while Saya didn't quite register if the liked him or not.

It wasn't bad, she concluded, and continued exploring Kouta's mouth. As much as they wanted to continue reveling in this new development between them, they broke away for air, both panting lightly. With a blush, Saya stepped away from Kouta and fixed her glasses.

"W-well, that should be enough for today...we're suppose to be on look out, remember?" Saya said, blushing, and looked over at Kouta out of the corner of her eye.

"Yeah, you're right." Kouta said, nodding with a smile before he turned to pick up his rifle.

"L-let's do it again sometime, Hirano..." Saya said, her blush flaring red as Kouta looked at her a bit surprised. "F-f-for practice!"

Kouta smile at her, and she cracked a smile back, both feeling closer than they had been yesterday.

"Defiantly!"

* * *

After diner, the group dispersed through out the house; Alice and Shizuka went back to the bedroom to get some sleep, and Takashi, Saeko and Rei each went up themselves to get some rest; Takashi in the spare room Kaede use to call his own and Rei and Saeko in the master bedroom with Saya and Kouta.

That didn't last long however with Saeko being the first to leave quietly, and soon, Rei took follow, leaving Saya and Kouta alone once again. When Saeko had left, she had gone down the hall to the room Takashi was residing in temporarily.

With a light knock, Saeko opened the door and entered, looking at Takashi who was laying on the bed in his t-shirt and pants, giving him a soft smile and a wave as she started for the bed; Takashi returned it and sat up on the bed, making room for the swordswoman to sit as well.

As for Rei, she left the room and closed the door behind her with a light sigh, looking to the right to see Saeko disappearing into the room Takashi would be staying at. Rei scoffed lightly and rolled her eyes before heading down the opposite direction, and down the stairs; she couldn't see Kaede yet, but as she made her way into the living room, she found him laying on the couch where he had been out of view from where she previously was standing; she also noticed he was shirtless, and probably napping, but he was quickly sitting up when he saw Rei.

"Oh, sorry...did I wake you...?" she asked, looking at his partially bandaged chest, remembering the wound he had gotten at the Takagi manor, then to his face with a awkward smile as she stopped her approach mid step. "I can go, if you were..."

"No, I was just resting my eyes; it's fine" he said, sitting up partially and motioned her over, making room on the couch for her since Kaede could guess she wanted to be next to him, and not on a different couch; seeing her had completely woken him back up, and he grinned lightly at her to show her it was okay and he wasn't sleeping, heavily at least.

**

* * *

**

A/N: Sexual content warning; do not continue reading if mature situations offend you, or if you are underage. If you are, you can skip this section, and I have another Author's Note at the end of these scenes.

In the room, Saeko's intentions became pretty clear quickly as she sat closely to Takashi; normally, he'd be blushing furiously at such an advance, but he was use to Saeko's forwardness by now, even if they haven't had that many encounters so far.

Without much delicacy or any words, Saeko leaned over to Takashi, and kissed him; slowly at first, but Saeko soon had her weight on Takashi and pushed him back onto the bed, her tongue running across his lower lip. Without much resistance, Takashi opened up, and let his arms wrap around her; one holding the back of her head closer, and the other around her waist, letting himself be taken by Saeko's intentions, surprising himself how easily he gave into his own carnal urges.

With more than enough permission given, Saeko deepened the kiss, pressing herself closer to Takashi as she slid her tongue into his mouth and his into hers, their tongues dancing against each other with a light moan from Saeko for getting Takashi's cooperation.

It was when Saeko shifted a bit, experimentally pressed her knee against Takashi's crotch that he pulled back, looking up at her.

"We can't do that, Saeko-san..." he muttered; as much as he wanted to as a male, he had already thought it over at some point, and shared his reasons at Saeko's dejected look. "We can't afford anyone getting pregnant at this point...and I didn't think of grabbing any rubbers at the store earlier."

Saeko blinked with mild surprise; she hadn't thought of that, and it was a really good point on Takashi's point. She smiled lightly and placed a light kiss on his lips.

"As expected of our leader...thinking even something like this out so well" she muttered the now familiar phase to Takashi with the same playful teasing as everyone else did when they said it; only, her voice was heavy and a lot more erotic. "But, if that's the case, there are plenty of pleasures we can do that won't bring up a chance like that..."

Takashi was silent for a second before sighing and kissing Saeko shortly.

"That's fine then, as long as we don't take a chance like that" he said, watching as Saeko's expression lightened up and as she leaned down to continue their kiss from before.

"Ah, you should mention that to Kaede and Rei too, just in case..." Saeko said, pausing and watching Takashi's surprised reaction, easily guessing her didn't know their relationship had developed that far; there wasn't any harm in teasing him, since there was only surprise and no anger of the comment of Rei and Kaede having that kind of relationship, and that she doubted that they actually were that far anyways.

Before Takashi could ask any more questions though, Saeko sealed his lips with hers, continuing where they left off; she felt Takashi give in under her, her previous words momentarily forgotten, and him start kissing back, like before. Saeko's hands found the hem of his shirt and started lifting it, breaking the kiss to remove it with Takashi's help.

He had half expected her to return to the kiss, but was given a new sensation when Saeko started on his neck, kissing and sucking on his throat. Never having felt anything like it before, Takashi let out a soft groan as she kissed a bit lower to the nape of his neck, and lightly nibbled on the flesh, earning another groan.

Saeko was obviously experimenting, likewise never having done anything of this manor so far, but more to map out Takashi's sweet spots for later usage since she had the knowledge; she was just experimenting on where to use it.

As Saeko continued her ministrations on Takashi's neck, they both became aware of a stiffness in Takashi's pants. Saeko glanced up at Takashi with a knowing smile before returning to her task, moving past his collar bone and progressing downwards with light kisses down Takashi's chest, Takashi painfully aware of the tent in his pants now thanks to Saeko.

He groaned lightly as she nipped at his skin here and there, but her goal obvious as she continued downwards; Saeko did pause at Takashi's navel though, giving it special attention as her fingers worked his zipper down over the bulge of his member. Slender fingers slipped into Takashi's pants, fishing his length from his pants gently; Takashi lightly gulped nervously at the sensation of someone else's hands on his dick and tired relaxing at her touch, which happened easily enough, for a few moments, anyways before another new pleasure was brought on Takashi.

Not bothering to remove Takashi's pants before hand, Saeko moved down the last bit until she was face to face with his moderately sized member, standing erect at seven inches; her eyes widened a bit, taking in the shape and form of Takashi's shaft, familiarizing herself with her self with her soon-to-be-lover's equipment. A thought suddenly crossed her mind as she felt a dampness between her thighs, and a smirk spread across her lips as Saeko ran her finger along the underside of Takashi's length.

He shuttered at the touch, and suddenly found Saeko shifting; Takashi didn't even have time to ask himself what she was doing before his question was answered, finding Saeko's stocking clad thighs resting on both sides of his head and that he was staring up at the junction between them, nothing but that thin strip of cloth obstructing his view of her womanhood.

Takashi's heart jumped in his chest, and no just from the sudden view; Saeko's tongue had run along the head of him member, obviously not bothered by the strong, musky smell from him having no properly bathing for awhile and making him bite his lip at the explosion of pleasure. Throwing caution to the wind, Takashi raised his hands and pushed Saeko's skirt up, bunching it up at her waist as he took hold of one of the strings on the side of the thong.

It only took a small tug to pull the knot free, and the fabric started falling free. Takashi pulled the black panties further away from Saeko's body and down her thigh slightly, exposing Saeko's glistening sex to Takashi, from the patch of purple hair at the top, all the way back to her puckered asshole; Saeko hardly seemed to mind.

In fact, it was almost as if she rewarded him for his actions, taking the tip of his member into her mouth and gently began sucking, making Takashi groan out again in pleasure; a bit unsure of himself, Takashi followed suit, his hands falling on Saeko's plum cheeks while both of his thumbs reached down and spread her slit, exposing even more of her to him.

At this, Saeko let out a hot moan, her juices already trickling down her thighs despite Takashi only starting to please her; as Saeko's lips started moving further down on his shaft, Takashi leaned forward, and experimentally licking along her spread slit, deciding right off he liked the taste of Saeko's juices. Licking her again, he payed extra attention to the little nub at the top, well, bottom, in their position, of her folds this time, like he had seen in plenty of 18+ videos.

It seemed to work, earning him another moan from Saeko and more sucking on his shaft, making his hips raising unconsciously to her, making her take in more of his shaft as well; Saeko was eager to wrap her lips around as much of Takashi's cock as she could, but she was still inexperienced, so she had to settle with stroking a bit more than half of it while she stared moving his head, sucking and licking on the other half and receiving many moans and pants from Takashi.

Not wanting to be shown up, Takashi kept his attention on Saeko's clit, but also shifted his hand, sliding a single finger into her hole; finding that it went in easily enough, Takashi quickly added a second, getting a nice moan from Saeko, before he began pumping his fingers and simultaneously licking on the nub of pleasure that made Saeko moan continuously around his shaft. Takashi was once again surprised when Saeko's lips started moving further down, feeling the tip enter Saeko's throat, feeling an amazing tightness as Saeko made herself kiss his pubes

Saeko's quickly lips retracted from Takashi's cock, panting for air after her little attempt at deep-throating, but that didn't stop her for long; she started licking and kissing down his length to areas her mouth couldn't reach without gagging herself. When she got to the base, Takashi expected her to start back upwards until she felt her mouth on his sac. Takashi's lips broke from her clit for a moment to take in a sharp breath of air at the pleasure, her hand stroking him completely as she took one of the orbs into her mouth, and groaned lightly.

"S-Saeko...san...t-that feels...amazing..." Takashi groaned between pants, her sucking intensifying when it was when Takashi expressed how good it felt; wanting to return the favor, Takashi attacked Saeko's clit with a new vigor, sucking roughly on the stiff nub.

This new attack made Saeko moan loudly and momentarily let his sac fall from her mouth from the pleasure; she quickly took up sucking up his length again to the tip, this time teasing it with her tongue, licking along the small slit as her hand pumped the rest of it. This got a good reaction from Takashi, so she continued with that for awhile before sliding her lips back down his shaft. In response, Takashi's fingers began moving faster as well, feeling a familiar pressure building up in his testis like never before.

Unbeknownst to him, Saeko was having the same feeling of an orgasm building up right along with him; the two's actions on each other became faster and more rugged, both sucking and pumping sloppily and faster until Takashi gave a low groan, and Saeko a muffled cry around Takashi's pulsating shaft. At his end, Saeko's slit suddenly exploded with juices he eagerly started licking up, withdrawing his now soaked fingers to start licking at her twitching inner walls; as for Saeko, Takashi's dick gave a few dry spasms before string after string of hot, thick seed started shooting into her mouth, loving the taste almost instantly of Takashi's fluids and swallowing it down as soon as it came.

Takashi kept licking until there wasn't anymore of Saeko's orgasmic juices left, reaching as deep as her could with his tongue to find any more before he finally withdrew from her, and Saeko had swallowed every last bit of his cum before releasing his softening member from her mouth; with the same agility Saeko had used to get them into the position, she got them out of it and laid, face to face with Takashi, both panting lightly.

Saeko smiled lightly, and so did Takashi before he wrapped his arm around Saeko's shoulders, both catching their breath.

"That was amazing, Komuro-kun..." Saeko said as she laid her hand on Takashi's chest, neither of them caring of the state of undress they were in at the moment, both just happy to be in each others arms after such an experience.

"Thanks...I've never done anything like that before..." he admitted, grinning at Saeko. "You were wonderful as well, Saeko-san...simply wonderful..."

"Well, thank you...but I've never done it before either" Saeko said with a light giggle, surprising Takashi slightly at the unexpected information.

"S-seriously? But that...it felt like a...a professional" Takashi said, hesitating at his choice of words, and for a moment, he thought they may had been the wrong ones to say.

"Really now, what kind of woman do you take me fore, Komuro-kun?" Saeko asked, in a serious tone, before smiling and giggling at Takashi's expression. "I'm teasing. But really, it was my first time."

"Well, I'm glad that it was then..." Takashi said with a light smile before kissing Saeko shortly, the fact of where her mouth had just been not lost on him, but Saeko didn't mind his reluctance, not wanting to push him too much; and they both also wanted to just relax together, and that's what they did, for a while.

What had caused them to arise and fix themselves wasn't something welcome, at all; there was several huge explosion outside, so close it had to be in the backyard, and light blaring into the window and lighting up the room.

"What the fuck was that!" Takashi cried at the light and sound, a sinking feeling in his gut...

* * *

Rei watched Kaede yawn lightly and frowned, having moved closer to him so she was leaning on his shoulder; but as he yawned, she sat up a bit.

"Are you sure? I can go if you're tired..." Rei said, not wanting to, but more concerned for Kaede's well being than her own desires.

"No, it's fine" Kaede replied with a grin, placing his arm around Rei's shoulder. "I like your company anyways, Rei."

At the contact, Rei smiled and leaned against Kaede again, falling into the simple bliss of being close to the one she had feelings for, but that also lead her to be a bit worried.

"You still need your sleep though..." Rei muttered, looking up at Kaede with a skeptical look, since he did look a bit tired.

Maybe it was the fact that he was indeed tired, but Kaede's arm around Rei tightened a bit, and he suddenly laid back down, taking Rei with him with a playful smile.

"Well, why don't you keep me company till I fall asleep then?" he asked with a small grin, Rei now laying on top of him and looking at him with a bit of surprise for him taking the initiative so quickly; he was even resting his hand on her lower back, almost on her rear, but not quite. "Or was your comment about sleeping together just for show?"

Rei pouted at his comment and swatted playfully at his chest, making him grin down at her; she quickly settled down, however, and laid her head against his chest, listening to his breathing and beating heart for awhile, before looking back up at him, propping her chin on his chest as she looked into his maple colored eyes with her own red hues.

Something seemed to connect between the two, and Rei shifted upwards to level herself with Kaede, and they kissed, slowly at first, but Kaede took a more forward stance, his both of his hands wrapping around Rei's waist now and pulling her closer, kissing her deeper as well. Rei happily accepted his prodding tongue into her mouth, sending her own to prod at his as she let a light moan out into Kaede's mouth.

They were kissing for awhile when Rei shifted to get into a more comfortable position, breaking the kiss; she ended up straddling Kaede's waist, suddenly becoming aware of the knot where Kaede had the sleeves of the jumpsuit he was wearing were tied, the rough fabric pressing against the softer fabric of her panties, and her womanhood beneath.

She was startled at the sudden contact, making her blush as she felt herself be aroused much more than she had been during the few simple make out sessions she had with Kaede and a new urge raised inside her; she leaned in and kissed Kaede passionately with little warning, her heart beating in her chest. Rei rounded up all her courage, shifting a bit so her path downwards was clear, and reached her hand downwards to Kaede's crotch, making his eyes widen with surprise, and pull back from the kiss.

"R-Rei...!" Kaede questioned, looking in Rei's eyes and, like before, her message was conveyed without saying anything, and she felt a stirring in his pants; even so, he wasn't sure if they should jump so far ahead when things were progressing a little slowly before hand. "I-I don't know about this..."

"Don't worry about it; it's not like we're going to actually have sex or anything..." Rei said, her voice husky and, with her previous actions, could easily fool Kaede into thinking that's what she wanted; she smiled lightly and placed a short kiss on his lips. "I was...thinking of just rubbing against each other...something like mutual masturbation, right...?"

Kaede blinked, and nodded slowly, not having expecting to hear that suggestion from Rei, but it wasn't such a bad idea, so he agreed with another nod and a light grin, letting himself be convinced with just that. To seal the deal, Kaede kissed Rei deeply again, both quickly giving in and their tongues started batting with each other.

As they kissed, Kaede's hand moved lower on Rei, and her hands moved from his chest to the knot she had accidentally turned herself on with earlier, both at an understanding of what to do next; Kaede's hand slid under Rei's skirt, sliding it up around her hips and slid his hands under the sides of her white panties as she worked the knot loose.

The two moved in unison and, with one swift movement, Kaede had shifted into a higher position on the couch, sitting up slightly with Rei's body following suit and straddling his waist comfortably as Kaede also pulled Rei's panties down partially, and she the zipper of the jumpsuit, leaving enough room for the tent in his boxers to spring up; Rei's hand found the hem of the shorts, kissing Kaede deeply as she tugged them down over his length, already feeling it was an impressive one, it feeling massive in her hands at nearly eight inches.

With her hands, Rei guided Kaede's member to rest between her thighs and along her moist slit, the tip barely poking out into view at the other end; with this, the right movements would rub Rei's sex along Kaede's, pleasuring them both greatly.

And that's just what they did, Rei sliding her slit back on Kaede's length, her juices starting to coat his member quickly, the action making them both moan. While Rei moved back to where the tip of Kaede's member was near her entrance, he had taken a look down where they were pleasuring each other, seeing Rei's neither-lips parted over his member with a patch of light brown hair above, as apposed to his own dark hair. The view didn't last long as Rei moved forward again and, as much as he could have just kept looking, Kaede looked up and kissed Rei once more.

With his hands on her hips, Kaede helped Rei slid along his member, both moaning into each others mouth; as an added bonus to both their pleasure, with each pass to come back together, Kaede's member pressed lightly against Rei's entrance, sending a shock of pleasure between them both when it happened, and that was what was really what was making them both moan each time they rubbed against each other. When their kiss was broken this time, Kaede moved down and started kissing Rei's neck, letting her catch her breath before stealing it once again, one of his hands shifting from Rei's rear end and to her front.

As his fingers found her stomach, Rei arched her back to his touch, and Kaede's hand slid up Rei's shirt; his hand moved further up her shirt, soon sliding under the left cup of her bra and grasping her breast gently, earning a louder moan from Rei. In return, Rei started sliding her pussy along Kaede's member faster and a bit rougher, making the tip hit hit and rub at her entrance, making them both moan in pleasure.

Rei shuttered as she came to stop on Kaede, letting his now soaked cock rest between her thighs, his hardness causing it to continuously wedge along her slit; he looked up at her a bit curiously, especially when she moved backwards, but was his questioning look was answered. Rei pushed her school uniform shirt up over her breasts, as well as her bra up over them, neither of them too eager now to actually stop and properly undress now.

Not that Kaede or Rei really minded anyways, both finding it a bit more exciting that way, doing what they were while still partially dressed; the thrill made it all the better when Rei started moving again, rocking her hips back and forth on his length, pleasuring them both as both Kaede's hands fell on Rei's breasts this time, squeezing them and rubbing her nipples, soon getting them to raise firm under his touch.

With Rei doing most of the work because of their positioning, Kaede decided to make it up to her any way he could, so, he leaned in, his hand holding her breast steady, and licked her erect nipple, getting a soft cry from Rei in response. His lips wrapped around the bud, and he began sucking on it playfully as Rei's slit continued to slide from tip to base of his member, her juices as well as his own were mixing as their pleasure built.

Thanks to the added pleasure from Kaede's ministrations, Rei's sliding and grinding on Kaede's cock became rougher and more roughed; with the increase of fluids spilling over his member and the increase of spasms he could feel, Kaede guessed Rei was close to an orgasm, and soon felt the tightening in his loins signaling he wasn't far behind either. He pushed hips forwards experimentally, making Rei emit a louder moan than before and Kaede broke away from her nipple and kissed her to muffle her moans which were becoming a bit too loud now, and there were other people in the house, so he didn't want to draw anyone's attention to them at this point.

He continued the light thrusts of his hips, causing the slides to become much more pleasurable to them both, their tongues dancing in their mouths together as they worked themselves to a climax together; when it hit them, Kaede was thankful for having kissed Rei so her orgasmic moans didn't echo far into the house, or his own.

As they both started cumming, Kaede pulled Rei close to him, their moans muffled as Rei's womanhood exploded with her thick, clear nectar while Kaede's member twitched wildly, his seed shooting from the tip and sending several thick ropes flying across the other end of the couch.

Both spent, Rei collapsed onto Kaede, and he held her tightly as the panted, hardly caring about the state their clothes were in, only worrying about each others panting, feeling as they were the only two in the house; even as they settled down and caught their breath, they didn't do much about their partial nudity, too tired to fix their clothes at the moment, and they didn't particularly care too either. Kaede stroked Rei's hair softly as she rested against him, smiling lightly and wanting nothing more than to fall asleep with her right now, but he knew sleeping in their current state would be bad in the morning; in any case, a few more moments wouldn't hurt, and be reveled in Rei's most nude body against his own a bit longer.

**A/N: This is the end of the mature content; if you skipped past it, this is where you start reading again.**

* * *

The incentive to get themselves properly dressed came with Yuki came down the stairs to them; Kaede noticed something wrong with her almost instantly as she paced around, back and forth at the end of the couch, hardly caring about the state the two teen were in. When she barked was when Kaede was put on alert, and he looked to Rei, who had seemed to doze off, but had been awoken by the bark.

"W-what's going on?" Rei said, on alert as well from the bark, and looked at Kaede, even more on edge from the look on his face.

"We need to get up, Rei," he said, and sat up as Rei shifted off of him, fixing her shirt and bra with a light blush from what they just did; even considering the sudden change in situations, Rei couldn't help but to wander off to the leap she and Kaede had just taken in their relationship, feeling much more bonded with Kaede now, but was quickly sobered back up by Kaede's words. "Somethings not right; Yuki's a hunting dog, and she smells something that's not suppose to be here..."

"Is it _them?" _Rei asked as she stood from the couch, pulling her panties back up, wishing she had thought about cleaning up before hand, but things seemed a little rushed right now.

"I don't think so; you've seen how Zeke reacts to _them" _Kaede said as he likewise stood, fixing his boxers and the jumpsuit a bit, tying it off like before, and picked up one of his Match USPs that had been laying on the table beside him; seeing Kaede arm himself, Rei grabbed the M1 that had been left leaning against the table, like Kaede's WA2000, the Baikal shotgun Kaede had been cleaning, and the AR-10, which Kouta had left downstairs. "It's defiantly not good, either way."

Another bark from Yuki, and Kaede stepped over to her, petting her and muttering something to her; the Akita Inu was off through the house, towards the backdoor with Kaede and Rei following after the white dog. When they got to the back door, Yuki barked at hit, and Kaede pushed it open, it seeming empty outside, but he kept his eyes peeled, Yuki now barking more freely and Rei following cautiously behind him.

Something moved to Kaede's right, and he quickly raised the handgun in that direction when there was the sound of a shotgun being fired, a hole being blown in the wall just beside Kaede; he quickly dropped to his knee and whipped his gun around, firing off four shots at a dark figure he could see with what was now obviously a shotgun, over in the corner where there was a rear gate in the wall; it was obvious from the cry of pain that at least one hit and obviously not in a vital area, since the figure quickly retreated through the forced open rear gate.

Since both Kaede and Rei's attention were on where the figure that had shot at them, the sudden shrieking of fireworks more than startled them; they both whipped around, Yuki barking like crazy now, as a large box set of fireworks started going off as another figure, the one Kaede had spotted first but had been able to give proper attention too, ran around to the front of the house. With being able to do anything about the loud fireworks since there was no running water, Rei and Kaede quickly bolted into the house once more.

At that moment, Kouta and Saya saw a girl run from the side of the house to the front as the loud screeching of fireworks went off in the back; Kouta was quickly on his feet as nearly every walking corpse was drawn to them due to the sound.

As Saya looked down at the figure, she recognized her as Yuuki Miku, a student and one of Shido's followers when they last left her; Kouta, recognizing her or not, had the DSR-1 trained on her as she soon found out that she was trapped; when she started for the gate at the end of the path, Kouta shot the ground, keeping her trapped until Takashi gave the orders on what to do.

Down the hall, the noise had obviously alerted Takashi already, and he and Saeko were busy fixing up their clothes when Kaede came storming down the hall.

"We've got trouble; the back gate's open, and _they'll _be swarming us over; some one broke in and set off fireworks in the backyard" Kaede said as he threw open the door, just as Saeko had finished retying her panties and pulling them back in place; the last part wasn't exactly needed to be explained, but the main question was unanswered. "I'm sure I shot one in the back, but it wasn't a killing shot, I don't think."

"Who was it?" Takashi asked, already knowing Kaede didn't know, as he pulled on his gakuran and the belt-harness and grabbing his shotgun, Saeko also taking up her katanas. "Are we going to have to make a run for it?"

Kaede only got a nod out in response to Takashi's question before a sudden crashing from outside and Kouta's yell for the others made them rush into the master bedroom, Alice and Shizuka peaking out of their room; Rei stopped to explain the situation, and that they needed to start getting ready to leave.

Saeko, Kaede and Takashi rushed into the master bedroom to find Saya scrambling around, gathering anything scattered around, and nothing but the groaning on _them _outside and a girl's screaming.

"What happened!" Takashi yelled as he rushed over to Kouta; dread filled his heart as he saw what was going on downstairs, the gate now on the ground, and a steady flow of the undead entering the house's yard.

"T-they broke down the gate some how!" Kouta replied as Takashi and Kaede gathered on the balcony, most of _them _that had gotten in more concerned with the squirming meal many were already piled on top of. "She was one of Shido's...she suddenly came running from the back."

"She musta been one of the ones we saw...the other must have been Sasaki then." Kaede muttered, clenching his fists at this disaster; it was only a matter of time before _they _started getting inside, and no doubt there were the undead at the rear as well.

His and Kouta's eyes fell on the Browning on top of the Komatsu at the same time.

"Alright, you guys get everything ready to go!" Kaede yelled, stuffing the Match USP into the waist line of his jumpsuit as he went for the side of the balcony. "Kouta, cover me!"

And with that, Kaede hopped over the side, grabbing onto the railings and waiting a moment, before dropping down, right onto one of _them _that had been passing by, breaking his fall.

"I swear that guy's crazy..." Takashi muttered before nodding to Kouta, who was in a bit of awe at Kaede's feat before quickly taking out a few of the undead in his way as he went for the Komatsu; leaving it up to Kouta, Takashi started back inside, nodding to Saeko to start getting busy too.

With the help of Kouta, Kaede made it to the Komatsu easily, and also with his support, was able to climb up and to the gun port, since the doors were all locked up; Kaede whipped the gun around, sitting on the roof since the porthole was also locked up, and started mowing _them _down with the .50 caliber rounds of the Browning.

Things were being turned around, and it now depended on how fast the rest of the group could get out and into the Komatsu, and load it.

Takashi supervised the gathering of what they had brought and, since most of them were there to help, there were all loaded for a single trip; Kouta had come down when Kaede had gotten to the Komatsu, and now they were ready to head out.

"Get ready to unlock the truck, Shizuka-sensei" Takashi reminded the teacher at the door, who held up the key determinedly; making sure everyone was ready, he nodded to them all before unlocking and throwing the door open.

The carnage from the Browning was laying everywhere on the ground in the form of blood, guts, and chunks of flesh and bodies, some still moving. They didn't have time to carefully pick through it all, so they quickly rushed the short distance across the lawn to the Komatsu; on top of the truck, Kaede was now holding off anymore of _them _from getting inside the grounds after having cleared the grounds of the undead for now.

As they neared the truck however, more from the back of the house started coming around, attracted by the sound of the Browning. Takashi and Kouta, using the AR-10, began holding them at bay while Shizuka got the truck unlocked, and everyone started piling the supplies they were carrying in, the young Alice being the one in first.

With most of the supplies thrown in, when it was time for them to start getting in, it was a cramp fit, but it had to do, given their current situation; just as Shizuka jumped in and started the truck, the Browning hit empty, and someone opened the port hole for Kaede, though, try as they might, no one could find the ammo cases for the Browning under all the stuff.

It was proved unnecessary, however, when Shizuka was able to pull back and, though it was a bit bumpy, eventually break away from the massive horde that had amassed outside the house. They all sighed a sigh of relief, hardly believing they actually had gotten out of such a horrible situation alive.

But they did, and that's all that mattered to any of them.

* * *

If Shido had been mad earlier, he was now beyond pissed s he watched from the window of the house across and down the street as the Komatsu broke away from the horde, and the hated group of students was free to live another day, even after all his careful planning!

He had spent hours waiting for the right chance to cut the chain at the front gate of the house thanks to the fat otaku and the Takagi's daughter keeping a diligent eye out; on that part, it was a bit lucky that their hormones had distracted them, giving him the perfect chance; they hadn't even noticed anyways. Then he waited until they should have all been asleep and send both his loyal-ish followers to plant the fireworks in the backyard, and too keep the back door open so they'd be trapped. It had been a perfect plan, but apparently not perfect enough for them, since they had survived, and neither Sasaki or Miku had made it back so far.

At a thud in that hall a moment before Sasaki entered the room made Shido scratch the though; even so, he looked pretty bad, with blood soaking a lot of his right shoulder and arm.

"What happened to you?" he asked coldly as he watched the teen fall to his knees, withering in pain.

"T-that fucking Himoura shot me!" Sasaki yelled back, and Shido's eyebrow twitched; he needed to get out of there, now that Sasaki had probably lead the undead right to him.

As Sasaki let out string after string of curses at Kaede, Shido walked over to the dropped shotgun, and picked it up, Sasaki paying him no mind in his anger.

"What happened to Miku?" Shido asked, again coldly.

"They probably got her too!" Sasaki yelled; again, Shido's eyebrow twitched.

"Shut up. You're getting too annoying" Shido spoke, coldly and clearly, and Sasaki flipped his lid.

"What the fuck did you just say, old man? I'll fucking kill you-!" Sasaki's threat was suddenly cut short when he noticed he no longer had the gun, Shido did.

And Shido didn't hesitate; Sasaki's body fell to the floor, dead, and Shido looked coldly at him, before kneeling to take the rest of the shells off the teenager, only, he didn't see the empty eyes of the walking corpses now coming up right behind him. It was their groans at Shido's neck that warned him of _their_ presence and their cold hands on his coat that made that warning ineffective.

* * *

It had been little over an hour since their escape from the house and every one was tired, either having been woken up or dozing off when they were forced to leave the house, so the first thing on Takashi's mind was to find someplace to rest; they had left the residential area and was now driving along the freeway without a set goal anymore.

A few minutes had passed since they had gotten onto the freeway that Kaede, who was alone at the gun(and had put a shirt back on at some point) ducked down and looked to Takashi.

"I think I see a place...a mall" he said softly, since Alice, Rei and Saeko were all dozing, and only Takashi, Saya and Kouta's duty to make sure Shizuka stayed awake kept them up as well.

"Why a mall...? Those places are always swarming in the movies..." Takashi said, and Saya answered for Kaede, understanding what he was getting at.

"We'll be able to gather things we may need" Saya said with a yawn. Like batteries and stuff. And we can't always go trusting movies right now, Komuro."

Takashi sighed, crossing his arms over his chest in though.

"Well, alright, but it it looks bad, we're turning right back around the other way" Takashi decided with a nod, and Kaede gave him the directions from the roadsigns to convey to Shizuka.

Kaede popped back up, and a few minutes later, could see the mall in the distance, their next destination.

**Chapter 12, end**

**Author's notes: So, uh, I checked out the reviews on this fic recently, and her's a little response to the anonymous poster that reviewed; I'm aware that it follows the original story pretty closely at the beginning, but would you rather have me go 'Okay guys, imagine this new guy has been with the group the entire time,' and start where it starts getting original? I don't think many people would really like that, and the fic does have it's differences, even though they may be small, and only really start getting noticeable later on; in other words, wait till you've read more than the first few chapters before commenting like that, alright? Especially past Chapter 4, where you commented on, this fic did follow the manga almost completely; it was necessary to set the story up. **

**Anyways, I at least should thank you for reminding be about the disclaimer...that was the only useful thing I got from your review...in any case, anyone familiar with Needless? I have a fic for that up, though, I only have the Prolog chapter up so far, so if you're interested, check it out!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's notes: Well, the poll results are in; Takashi will be meeting his dad in a few chapters. But, since chapter 29 of the manga just came out, I'll be including Rei's mom as well soon. I have something I want to do before that after the mall, so it may take a couple of chapters; any suggestions on a name for Takashi's dad? I'll probably have a poll up if I get enough suggestions.**

**Chapter 13: Mall of the DEAD**

Takashi sighed to himself as he walked through the mall with Kouta at his side, his mind drifting to the night before; they had made it to the mall late last night, and with Kaede's lock picking skills, they had gotten inside easily. The problem was on the inside...

There was already a group of people situated, along with a police officer which they assumed was the leader of the group; before approaching her, Saya had mentioned they should hide the guns before anyone saw them; so, they did, Takashi expecting an explanation later, but trusting Saya's judgment for now.

And so, now, he and Kouta were wandering the mall while the other group had a meeting among themselves, dressed only in their uniforms now, though they did have their Mk 23s under their jackets, which Kouta had insisted on keeping just in case. Their goal was to try and find things that would be useful to them, but Takashi really had no idea as to what they should be looking for.

Thinking on the path of recent going ons, his mind soon came to this morning, where they had a bit of a chat with the police officer, whose name was Nakaoka Asami; apparently, she was just a patrolwoman of the traffic department, and hadn't been the one that organized the survivors. It had been a senior officer, who Asami only referred to as Matsushima-senpai, who had just recently went back to their headquarters for help.

They didn't have the heart to tell her the police station was completely empty now, and there was more then a chance the senior officer was one of the undead now.

When the officer had been called off for the meeting of the original occupants of the mall, Saya then explained why they had hidden the guns, and the problem with the other group; the other group, just like with the vassals at her home, would think a bunch of teenagers should be using the guns, even if they were the most 'qualified' to do so, and would want to put them to use for their own means.

As for the group it's self, despite having enough food(apparently, the senior officer had the meat gathered up and dried after the power went out) and water, the foundation of the group, namely the officer that had organized them, was gone; that, and various other things taken away, such as electricity and showers, which Alice had actually pointed out, the people would be irritable, and less likely to cooperate with one another, which had already been seen plenty of times through the hostility of the other survivors.

In any case, Saya had sent both he and Kouta to look for things while the other group was occupied with their meeting, warning them to only take things they'd really need since the other group had already laid claim to everything in the store. Thinking back to Saya made him grumble under his breath.

"...man, she's got some nerve pushing us around like that." Takashi muttered, and Kouta, catching his complaint, grinned lightly as they walked side by side, along the second floor of the mall, not really looking for anything because they didn't know what to look for. "Meanwhile, she's just..."

His and Kouta's mind drifted to Saya's parting words.

"_I can't wear this kind of flappy clothing anymore." _she had said, holding up the hem of her frilly skirt she had been put in by her mother at the mansion while Alice, who had expressed her want to change as well a bit earlier, stood behind Saya. _"I'm going to go change with her..."_

"...doing what she wants." Takashi finished with a sigh, before looking at Kouta with a frown. "By the way, just what did she mean by 'only what we really need'? You have an idea, right?"

"Well, other than batteries for the flashlights, no, and I'm not sure were we'd find them either." Kouta replied with a light scoff; he was just as clueless as Takashi, since it seemed Saya was implying to more than just batteries. "Should we try talking to the police woman? She seems unreliable, but it looks like she knows the stores pretty well..."

Though he spoke as it was a suggestion, with Takashi's nod, it was made a statement, and it was decided they'd be seeking out Asami the police woman's help soon.

"I'm glad we hid the guns." Takashi said, out of the blue and getting a clueless look from Kouta, so he continued on. "I just don't think it would be a good idea to carry guns like those around with a police officer here, especially since she's suppose to be in charge, and they hardly even acknowledge her in that way."

"Mmm...true, but there's only so much we can do without them...weapons tend to bring respect and power..." Kouta replied, and Takashi couldn't exactly read the real meaning as to what he was saying.

"You do know your guns...what are you trying to get at?" Takashi finally asked, looking at Kouta a bit wearily.

"It's nothing really," Kouta said, a dark grin forming on his face. "Just wondering whether we should put the guns to their intended use..."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves now..." Takashi said, now getting fully what Kouta was implying, and though it would be pretty easy to do something like that, he wanted to refrain from thinking about it as much as he could.

"But you get what I'm saying, don't you, Takashi?" Kouta asked, his gaze on him.

"I guess..." Takashi muttered in response, a bit worried for how much Kouta seemed to be pushing that idea onto him. "I don't think that's the best course of action though..."

"Hey, Takashi! Hirano-kun!"

The two looked up as their names were called to see Rei and Saeko in one of the mall's cafes, Rei behind the counter with Saeko sitting at it, and both of them looking towards the other two; Takashi's eyes caught Takashi's, and she smiled lightly while Rei frowned.

"Have either of you seen Kaede?" Rei called over to them; not what she was originally going to ask, but now, she was reluctant to have Takashi and Saeko together in front of her, especially when she hadn't seen her own counterpart since the morning.

"No, I haven't." Takashi replied, shaking his head while Kouta did the same behind him; now they were both a bit curious as to where Kaede had disappeared to, though, it did occur to Takashi that Kaede had kept the Baikal shotgun with him.

That with the conversation they had last night gave Takashi some clues, but he figured it wouldn't be too long before Kaede showed back up and reunited with the group, though it did seem to put Rei off that Kaede's whereabouts were unknown to her.

Hopping he hadn't damned Kaede for no good reason, Takashi waved them both good-bye before walking once more with Kouta to find the place where the other group of survivors where having their meeting and talk with the police woman...

* * *

"How long are we gonna sit around here for!"

That simple statement pretty much summed up every meeting the mall survivors had so far, even before the senior officer had left; the meetings always have been held in the staff room on the first floor of the mall, and that's where they were gathered.

"Bitch said we'd get help soon, but those motherfuckers just keep comin'!" one of the survivors, easily described in Japanese terms as a 'yankee', a delinquent. "And on top of that, the power and phones and shit are all fucked up!"

"I-I'm fine with anything...but," an elderly man, sitting on a couch with his wife leaning against his shoulder, and obviously sick. "My wife needs to have her weekly blood transfusion, so can we go to the clinic soon?"

"You know, I still need to contact my office somehow!" a middle aged business man tossed his complaint in, helping with the bombardment of things that needed to be done on the officer, who was standing at the head of them, obviously having a hard time with all the needs that were being placed on her shoulders, some more pressing than others.

"B-but, um...uh, senpai..." Asami finally swallowed her uncertainty, and assured them of the only thing she herself was sure of. "Officer Matsushima said to wait here until she comes back with help...s-so, Asa-no, I mean, this officer will do everything she can to..."

"You have no right to keep us prisoners like this! What you do have is a duty to protect us!" one of them yelled, making the young police woman flinch.

That outburst, plus all the survivors, including a young man looking near psychotic with a kitchen knife in his hand, an elderly man lighting a cigarette and a teen cowering in the corner in the middle of a break down, Takashi and Kouta, who had just found the staff room, could now understand what Saya meant when she said the group of survivors was near breaking down.

"Looks like..." Takashi muttered, Kouta finishing for him.

"They're all causing a lot of trouble for her..." not exactly what Takashi was going to say, but basically the same, if not more honest.

"The group's really falling apart then, huh?" Takashi muttered, looking over to Kouta, and away from the heated argument that had broken out between the survivors.

"If that was all, there wouldn't be much of a problem." Kouta said with a sigh, fixing his glasses with a frown as he watched the argument suddenly turn on the police woman before explaining further. "Groups are suppose to be together for a certain purpose; that's not the case here. They're just clinging to the authority of the police..."

"But they're putting the blame on her..." Takashi muttered as the survivors continued yelling about this and that, doing just what Takashi had observed.

"They've realized there's no use in relying on the police anymore; they've realized the police aren't the saviors they thought they'd be," Kouta replied as they watched the police woman Asami near tears at the anger the other survivors were unloading on her, everything seeming to make even more sense to Takashi as Kouta explained. "So they're placing the blame on the police woman now...Takashi. I know we shouldn't come to the rescue of every last person we meet who's in trouble..."

"Yeah..." Takashi said, blinking as it didn't seem that Kouta wasn't going to continue right away, though he was starting to catch on at Kouta's grin.

"But..."

"That's boring!" they both yelled, grinning at each other; they were both thinking along the same lines now.

"Let's make things more interesting!" Kouta said, and placed his hand in his pocket; Takashi didn't think Kouta wouldn't have been happy with just the Mk 23 on him...

"What is talking like this going to do!" the business man yelled as the police woman.

"If you were a respectable police officer, you'd do something about those monsters outside!" another survivor yelled, a woman this time.

"B-but this officer..." Asami sniffled, trying to hold back the tears welled in her eyes from the added stress and trouble from the survivors. "Asami didn't get very good grades at the police academy, and she's just one girl..."

Despite the truth in her words and the sense that the words should have put int the survivors, they continued with their onslaught, verbally abusing the officer, until the chubby teenager that had shown up with those other high school survivors slid up next to the officer.

"Uhh, 'scuse me, miss police officer..." he said, loud enough for the others attention to be put on him and the officer.

"Can't you see we're in the middle of a very important conversation!" the business man yelled, turning his attention on Kouta.

"Ah, well, I found something the police officer dropped, so I wanted to give it back to her..." Kouta replied with a sly grin.

"I...dropped something?" Asami said, looking at Kouta more surprised than relieved; her surprise was greater than the other survivors when Kouta pulled out what he was referring to.

"Yes, this." Kouta said, pulling out the revolver, and the first gun they had gotten out there amongst the dead. "Isn't this a police officer's gun?"

There were a few gasps, one even from the officer her self, but luckily, she caught on pretty quick.

"Y-yes, it is!" she said, her mood lightening up; it seemed she understood what having a gun would do for her, and took it from Kouta's offering hands, though ignoring his nervous reminder of her trigger finger, which was on the trigger. "A Smith & Wesson M.37 Airweight! The Prefectural police use this gun to enforce the law!"

"Whoa! Fuckin' yeah! With that thing, you can wreck those motherfuckers outside!" the yank yelled, staring at the gun in Asami's hand.

"But..." Kouta was suddenly beside the yank now, looking up at him with a dark look. "If the gun goes off, _they_ will all come and gather at the source of the sound, won't _they_? It would put us all in danger to use it like that...plus, there are only about as many bullets as there are people here."

Kouta's words struck a new fear into the survivors, and they all looked at Kouta with fear, then to the officer.

"But, anyways, the police officer should be the one with the police officer's gun, right?" Kouta said, leaving it at that and turning to Asami, saluting her before heading out of the room. "Well then, I trust you to use it wisely!"

"I will!" Asami said, straightening up and returning the salute to Kouta, her entire stature changing, now that she was armed like a proper police officer. "Thank you for your cooperation!"

* * *

"I think that should work out fine." Kouta said with a chuckle as he went and joined up with Takashi, who was waiting outside.

"Are you sure that was the right thing to do? If she has a gun like that..." Takashi said as Kouta walked over to join him, and they both started walking again, though it did occur to them both that the had lost sight of their original purpose to find the officer. "She may end up with more responsibility than she can handle..."

"Many years ago, the Sergeant Majors in England's military forces used no muskets, but spears." Kouta said, watching Takashi's clueless face. "Even today, high-ranking officers on the battlefield use relatively weak handguns...why do you think that is?"

"So that they can defend themselves...?" Takashi guessed, but with Kouta's words, he doubted that was the real reason, even though it seemed like the most reasonable.

"It's to maintain the unity of the group." a different voice answered, and they both looked up to see Kaede walking towards them; he had changed, and held with Baikal, which had been greatly modified as Takashi had guessed, and Yuki at his heels. "It's to remind to lower rank who's in charge, and that they can kill anyone who tries raising against them..."

Kaede had changed out of the jumpsuit and was now wearing a pair of long, black denim shorts that hung loosely around his mid-caves; along with his button-up school shirt, the sleeves rolled up, with a pair of half-tied boots and a pair of thick, fingerless gloves, he looked ready to head out at any moment.

With Kaede's explanation, Takashi looked over to Kouta, having expected something like that.

"Was that what you were getting at?" he asked, and Kouta nodded.

"More or less..." Kouta replied with a light grin as Kaede stopped in front of them. "Imagine the position that police woman is in now that she had the gun; it's better this way."

Kaede blinked, now wondering what kind of conversation he had just walked in on. He shook his head, since it was he that had practically disappeared for most of the day to work on his shotgun, which he had been able to do everything he had wanted to do to it in the hardware section of the mall, and missed a lot. So, he didn't ask.

"In any case, have either of you seen Shizuka-sensei?" Kaede asked, his hand on his right shoulder that had been cut in the dual against Souichiro at the Takagi manor; pain shot down his arm and he winced from just barely touching the bandaged wound, fearing it may be getting infected, especially since it had been a few days since the bandage had been changed.

Kaede's question suddenly had Takashi and Kouta's attention all too quickly; like Kaede, they hadn't seen Shizuka at all so far today, and there was a lot to worry about when it came to their ditzy nurse.

* * *

"Um, wait, this isn't..." Shizuka protested weakly; she was on one of the many beds in a mattress store of the mall, and her clothes were in disarray, the man responsible for it advancing threateningly on her.

"Come on, just this once?" he said as Shizuka moved to the far end of the bed, pulling her shirt that had been tugged up over her breasts, her black bra showing, the lacy fabric only fueling the man's lust. "Come one! You're the one who said you wanted to come here, aren't you?"

"N-no, I just meant that I wanted a bed because I'm so tired." Shizuka replied, not catching on that it was more than just a misunderstanding, though was a bit fearful from the wild lust in his eye as he looked down at her body. "You just misunderstood what I-"

"I don't give a shit! Just let me fuck you, okay?" it was a statement, not a question, that the man spoke, moving onto the bed and advancing towards where Shizuka was. "With all the monsters roaming around now, I'm not gonna meet any more women like you with such nice bodies! And, if I'm not being clear enough..."

The man drew the knife at his belt with one hand, holding it threateningly as he forced Shizuka's legs apart with the other; Shizuka let out a scream as the man reached to start tearing away her clothes, but he was interrupted by a click, and a shaky voice shortly after.

"S-stop it, Shimada-san!" Asami yelled from behind the man, Shimada, who hardly gave the police officer a second thought.

"What, you want some too, police girl?" Shimada said over his shoulder, before turning to look at the police woman behind him. "Sorry, but you're not my type-"

He was suddenly silenced as he turned to find a gun pointed straight at him and the police officer holding it.

"Drop your weapon and let her go!" Asami ordered as firmly as she could, but her voice was still uncertain, and her hand shook. "I'm warning you! Let her go and drop your weapon! Or else..."

Asami's voice wavered, and Shimada saw through Asami easily.

"You'll shoot?" he said, sitting on the edge of the bed now, facing Asami with his knife held loosely in his hand, watching the officer, confident she wouldn't shoot him. "You're shaking so much, and you expect me to believe you're gonna shoot! If you're going to shoot men, then shoot me!"

As much as Asami had prepared herself when the teen had given the gun to her, she still couldn't pull the trigger, no matter how much she needed to; Shimada wasn't the only one who noticed her hand waver.

From outside the store, Kouta moved quickly, gathering a few things and making something from them as Takashi and Kaede watched the officer and man, as well as nearly every one else residing in the mall, their shouting having alerted and drawn everyone to the mattress store; in a matter of seconds, Kouta was ready to come to the rescue.

"What's the matter? Shoot me!" Shimada yelled at the wavering police woman, beckoning her for she couldn't pull the trigger, and he knew it. "Or is the little police girl too scared!"

"She can shoot...she has to shoot!" Asami yelled, tears blinding her vision as she grasped at the gun with both hands. "Asami's a police officer, so she has to shoot to uphold the law!"

Though she still couldn't pull the trigger, Kouta deemed her resolve was plenty solid, and intervened before she did end up shooting blindly and hurting someone else than the would-be rapist; the otaku was behind the man and before Shimada could register someone was behind him, a wire was wrapped around his neck, and pulled tightly.

With a chocking sound, Shimada tried struggling, but Kouta only pulled the wire tighter around his neck. The man emitted gurgling sounds as he tried to breath, his fingers clawing at the wire digging into his throat.

"You finished?" Kouta asked, pushing his foot against the man's lower back, furthering his discomfort and the wire's hold around his neck. "It's futile to resist; it's digging into your skin, so there's no way you'll get it out. What're you going to do now? I have no problem with strangling you to death..."

Not having much of a choice, Shimada dropped the knife and, just before he became unconscious, Kouta eased up and pulled the wire from the man's neck, kicking him forward and onto his knees. Takashi walked up and picked up the knife while Kaede moved with zip-ties in his hand already; he proceeded to tie the man's hands behind his back as Saya and Alice approached Asami.

"It's alright, you can stop now." Saya said as she walked to Asami, placing her hand on the officer's shoulder; she still had the gun raised, but her arms were weak and it was only half raised. "It's over already! You don't have to shoot anyone!"

Though Saya wasn't the most comforting one, Asami slowly lowered her arms, panting and trying to speak, but she just couldn't form any words.

"It's okay, police lady! Kouta-chan saved her!" Alice added in, tugging on Asami's coat to get her attention.

"Ah...right..." she said, nodding as she relaxed her grip on the gun, catching her breath as she looked down at the gun, then up to Kaede tying the man up, who was only cooperative because Kaede had laid his shotgun within arms reach, and there wasn't a doubt in Shimada's mind that he would shoot without hesitation. "Y-yeah..."

"Why the hell does a kid like you have a gun anyways?" Shimada growled under Kaede, trying to buck him off but Kaede only pushed down harder on his arms, bending them in the awkward position that made him groan in pain. "Wasn't your friend that said the police should have the guns!"

"Dunno about that, but this is a civilian firearm, modified, but still civilian in accordance to Japanese law." Kaede replied as he finished with the binds, moving off of Shimada and picking up the sawed-off Baikal. "So it's fine for me to be carrying it around, right?"

Shimada only growled as he sat up on the bed, there being little to gain from arguing at all. As for Asami, she seemed to have calmed down considerably compared to what she was just seconds ago. She suddenly sent a look over to Kouta that made Saya look at her in complete disbelief.

"Kouta...san..." she said, dreamily, and Saya only stared.

"Uhh, police g...officer, c'mere for a sec..." the yank said, waving Asami over to the rest of the survivors.

* * *

"So...?" Rei sighed, her question directed straight to Takashi with her hands on her hips, standing behind the counter of the coffee shop they had made their 'base' inside the mall. "How long are we going to stay here?"

"Everyone's exhausted, so..." Takashi muttered; he, Saeko and Saya were sitting on the other side of the counter while, behind them, Shizuka, Alice, Kouta and Kaede sat among the tables of the shop.

"So how much longer will we be staying here!" Rei repeated, louder this time, obviously not wanting to stick around any longer after what just happened, or nearly happened, to Shizuka. "How can we relax in a place with a guy who has no problem raping women in front of other people!"

"Ah, well..." Takashi tried thinking of something to say, but Rei hardly gave him time to think of a good response.

"Fine, Takashi! Go get yourself raped by some hard gay bodybuilder, and then come back and maybe you'll understand what I'm talking about!" Rei continued, more than obviously hating the thought of rape more than anything, which was understandable but it was starting to get a bit out of hand.

"Miyamoto! Can I say something?" Saya cut in firmly, hardly giving Rei much of a choice.

"What?" Rei snapped back, turning to Saya, and it took a bit for the genius to keep calm.

"Try looking at this in a wider perspective..." Saya started with a frown. "If we want to reach our goals, we need to plan ahead, and that will take awhile, a day or two at the most. Plus everyone's tired; we can't keep pushing ourselves like this..."

"I agree; we need to figure out what route we're going to take get there, first off. So far, we've just been winging it, and it's caused us a lot of trouble when we do." Saeko added in. "After that, we need to start thinking of other things, like how much food and water we'll need to bring along, and what other supplies we'll need."

"My house is a twenty minute walk from here, and we have the truck still!" Rei shot back, another one of her worries surfacing.

Even though Rei did have the point of being eager to look for her parents, snapping at Saeko was a bad idea, shown by her expression changing from being taken back, to a calm anger.

"A twenty minute distance can take as long as a whole night, even with the truck..." Saeko said in a low voice, having the same effect as a slap to the face to Rei, though it did serve to 'sober' Rei up a bit, and they fell into a short silence before Kouta walked up to the counter.

"Uh, Saya-san, I have a question." Kouta said, looking towards the genus and continuing as she nodded. "I don't know much about electromagnetic waves and stuff, but...could that E.M.P. blast really break every last piece of electronic equipment? And isn't there equipment made to withstand lightening or inside a shelter? Would they be okay?"

"Protection against lightening wouldn't do shit! The limit of any of that kind of stuff would be broken by an E.M.P. immediately." Saya replied with a light smile from enlightening the rest of the group, though it wasn't exactly things they'd like to hear; at least they knew, and would get their hopes up if they came across anything like that. "Shelters wouldn't help either...buildings are made to allow incoming and outgoing signals from electronic equipment through antennas...but it also depends on how far of an area the blast effected, but it's not like we can figure that out easily on our own..."

Through out Saya's explanation, the group listened intently, therefore, no one noticed Rei behind the counter, working with the drink dispensers; though she may not have liked to admit it, Saeko had made her calm down a bit, and she decided to do a little something to make it up while the talked.

"What about equipment inside a bank vault?" Takashi asked, thoughtfully.

"There's a possibility that they'd be okay..." Saya said, thinking as well; she wasn't too sure herself, but it did seem possible.

"Then let's look and see for ourselves after the meeting then!" Shizuka chimed in, hopping from her seat. "There's a bank here, so we may find a laptop or something to keep up with that Jay Alert thingy!"

"Yeah, you're right!" Takashi replied, knowing about the bank as well. "You're right, Shizuka-sensei! Let's check it out!"

"That's be great..." Saya muttered, but there was a problem that she saw in that plan; not being shy to point it out, she continued with her statement. "But what if the other group wants it? They've already laid claim to everything here..."

The group was silent at Saya's words, and Takashi frowned noticeably.

"...even so, we're the one's that would find it if there is one in the vault..." Takashi said with a serious look. "I wouldn't mind sharing, but it would be ours, since we found it."

With a smile, Saya hopped off her chair, and clapped her hands.

"Then that's that! We have out leader's order's, so let's get going!" Saya said, and they were riled up once more, even Kaede, who had been keeping Alice busy by teaching her on how to start training Zeke, had stood up with the need to find something for himself; a proper hostler for the now shortened shotgun.

"Ah, before we start...!" Rei said as she turned her back to the others for a moment.

"Hey, we've got stuff to do..." Takashi's sentence fell off as Rei held out a cup of coffee to Takashi.

"Those other people haven't found this place yet, so there's plenty for everyone..." Rei said as she picked up another two cups, handing one to Saya and Saeko and picking up another set. "The dispensers still work, and there's plenty of bottled water too..."

"Wow, you're quite good at this!" Saeko commented after taking a sip of the drink.

"I worked part time at a cafe one summer..." Rei said as she took two more cups around the counter for Kouta and Shizuka, leaving the last two behind since she could only carry two at a time. "My dad found out though, so I had to quit after a week, but I still had gone through the training."

"Wow, this is good!" Shizuka exclaimed, though Alice looked at the glass with disdain.

"Coffee's gross..." she muttered, but Rei had caught it.

"There's juice back here too, Alice-chan" she said, smiling lightly as the young girl rushed over to the counter, Zeke following along with her. "And there should be a pet shop with toys for Zeke."

Takashi lightly smiled at the two as Alice jumped around happily as Rei got a drink for her too, glad to see Rei back to normal again; he, along with most of the others, set down their glasses as they finished the drinks Rei had made for them.

"Now, let's split up. We should leave the guns hidden for now." Takashi said, thinking of how to do so. "The girls should check out the bank and see what they can find. "Saeko-san, I'll trust you to take care of things if there's an emergency..."

Takashi paused, getting an nod from Saeko while Kaede walked to the counter, since it looked like Rei wouldn't be delivering the drink that intended to be his any time soon, and with them getting ready to split up, he didn't want to be the only one left out(though the though of Rei in a maid uniform was compensation enough for the 'delay in service').

"I'll go check the offices and see if there's anything the electromagnetic waves didn't reach; Kaede, do you do the same, but at the electronics stores." Takashi continued, getting a nod from Kaede and a tip from the glass he was holding. "And Kouta, you go to the roof and see how things are outside..."

Even though it was easy to guess the situation, Takashi wanted to be sure of their outside surroundings before heading out, even if there was a good chance they wouldn't be leaving until the next day.

"Yes sir!" Kouta said with the expected salute, which faltered lightly. "Oh, I'll stop at the camera shop and book store on the way to pick up some extra binoculars and a map too, alright?"

"Yeah, that's perfect!" Takashi said with a nod and, now that everyone knew their tasks, waved his hand. "Alright then, we'll meet up here when you're all done!"

* * *

"Looks like that way's no good either..." Kouta muttered, marking off yet another route on the map he had picked up after surveying a car crash completely blocking on of the roads away from the mall; accidents like that and the massive amount of the walking dead made it hard to find a clear route to get away from the mall with the Komatsu. "_Their _numbers just keep increasing too..."

Kouta peered through the binoculars he had picked up on the way to the roof, and looked towards where they had parked the said truck; it couldn't be seen by anyone that happened to look by, by Kouta knew where to look, and saw the dark green military vehicle where they had left it. He again looked to one of the routes; it was clear of car crashes, but completely packed with _them._

With the pencil, he marked off that route again and, before looking through the binoculars again, looked up at the sky. There were dark gray clouds floating across the sky, casting a looming shadow over everything; spring in Japan brought all sorts of weather, and this one seemed most fitting for what was happening. Kouta made a mental note to mention the possibility of rain to Takashi later before raising the binoculars to his face again, not even noticing the door onto the roof opening behind him.

"Um, Kouta...san?" came the police officer's voice, making Kouta jump in surprise, turning to find Asami practically leaning over his shoulder already, with a kind smile on her face. "What are you doing?"

"A-h, well, I'm just checking out the area to see how everything is out here." Kouta said as Asami looked down at the map sitting in his lap; from her expression, Kouta could guess she hadn't a clue what he was doing with it, but was soon praising him for it anyways.

"Wow, that's amazing! You're just a student, but you're still much more thorough than Asa...I mean, than this officer!" she exclaimed, making Kouta blush and scratch his cheek sheepishly.

"But Nakaoka-san, you showed us that you can be a pretty amazing police officer as well" Kouta said with a smile, hoping to boost the officer's self esteem by pointing out she did do a big thing earlier on by helping Shizuka out.

"No, not at all! Asami doesn't know what would have happened if you weren't there, Kouta-san!" Asami replied, shaking her head back and forth. "S-so, umm..."

"Y-yes?" Kouta said, nodding for her to continue.

"Really, thank you so much, Kouta-san" Asami said with a genuinely thanking smile.

"N-nah, it was nothing really..." Kouta said, waving his hand as he blushed, Asami starting to get to him even more, since he wasn't exactly one that would talk to girls on a regular basis before the Outbreak, but now, he had a cute girl nearly fawning over him.

"What are you talking about? This offi...Asami was really in trouble!" she cut in, shaking her head again, and her hands started reaching for Kouta; the otaku stared, dumbfounded, as Asami's hands reached for him. "So...really! Thank you so much, Kouta-san! You saved this useless police officer!"

Asami hugged Kouta tightly; though it was to thank him, it was more than enough to get Kouta's heart beating in his chest and his blood to quicken. Though the hug was a bit stimulating for the otaku, Asami's feeling were pushed across, and Kouta felt a sort of warmth inside; the feeling of being looked up to for protection. To protect someone close, and to be able to lean on that person for comfort when things got rough.

The feeling was a little premature, but Kouta's hands moved around Asami's waist hesitantly, the thought of Saya passing through his mind for a moment; she didn't comfort him like Asami was right now, so he let the though of Saya, and their little encounter last night at Kaede's house fade from his mind.

* * *

Kaede was the first to have gotten back with Alice and the two dogs; he had volunteered to escort the girl to the pet store after checking his given area, the electronics shop. The only thing useful in the long run he had found was a shortwave radio and plenty of batteries(he had took pretty much all of them, since the previous survivors hadn't figured out that most battery-powered electronics still worked).

He was sitting on a chair while Alice watched the two dogs eat the dog food from the bowels they had taken from the pet store when the girls showed up, empty handed.

"There's no way we're getting that vault door open on our own, and it was electronically locked" Saya had explained with a sigh. "I was kinda thinking that would be the case, but there wasn't any harm in looking, right?"

Takashi had shown up next at the coffee shop they had made a base, and now they were waiting for Kouta, though there wasn't anything that they were really waiting to do; so, Rei had made some more drinks for them all from what was there at the shop, and Takashi reminded Kaede he had been searching for Shizuka earlier.

As if being reminded of the possibly infected injury, Kaede's hand when to his shoulder as a spike of hot pain shot through his shoulder. Shizuka quickly beckoned him to remove his shirt; seeing the would inflamed, Shizuka quickly sent Rei for any bandages and rubbing alcohol she could find, Alice going with her.

"It does seem to be getting infected, Himoura-kun..." Shizuka said, he usual attitude changing from her usual ditzy-ness to a more serious tone, which was quite common when she was dealing with injuries. "Looks like we can't leave it alone for even a few days; it'll be fine though, the infection's not too bad yet."

Kaede only sighed and shifted, the nurse's breasts pressing against his back as she examined the wound on his shoulder; she may have gotten serious, but there was no changing how Shizuka was, no matter how serious she got. Though, Kaede had to admit, it didn't feel too bad, the feel of the large, squishy orbs of flesh compensating for the pain of their owner prodding at the wound with careful fingers.

A cold chill ran over him after a short while though, and Kaede looked up to be met with a death glare from Rei; the girl dropped what she had found on the table and huffed off behind the counter, more than obviously jealous and angry at Kaede. Alice also set somethings on the counter; they had gathered plenty of bandages and medicine, as well as a bottle of alcohol and cotton balls to use.

As Shizuka moved to the pile of things, Saya turned to Takashi, who had been sitting and staring off into space.

"So? Any luck?" she asked with her arms crossed, already able to guess the answer.

"Nope, none." Takashi replied with a sigh, laying his head against the counter. "Everything in the offices were fried, like everything else..."

"I thought as much...looks like this entire area was affected by the E.M.P." Saya muttered with a sigh, leaning against the counter. "If only we knew the full radius of the blast..."

"How would we be able to figure it out?" Takashi asked; he could figure out that it was impossible to do themselves, or else Saya would have mentioned earlier, but there was no harm in asking about it.

"Well, it's certainly not easy..." Saya muttered, pushing her glasses up on her nose. "It's not something any civilian can do either, regardless if it now, or before all this. Putting it simply, we'd need access to images taken from a satellite, so it's pointless to really even hope to get it, unless the information is released. In that case, we'd have to find a way to get the information from the J-Alert system."

"Figured as much..." Takashi groaned, noticeably annoyed with the information but knew he couldn't do much about it; Takashi ran a hand through his messily spiked hair before he spoke again. "So, if we do come across any of the Self Defense force...what then?"

"Well, assuming they actually have the information..." Saya sighed as she replied, crossing her arms again. "Which they might not, but if they do, the may have a estimated distance at which the E.M.P. effected, though it's pretty doubtful a grunt would have any information like that..."

"Then we'll just have to deal without electronics for now then, huh?" Kaede said from his spot; Shizuka had finished redressing his would, so he was now free to pull his shirt back on and start buttoning it, but Rei's eyes were still glaring holes in his back.

"That's a crude way of putting it, but yes." Saya said with a light smirk, having been on the path of saying the same thing herself anyways. "We've been doing a good job so far anyways, right?"

Takashi nodded slowly; Saya had a point there, like usual. His train of thought was abruptly when the yankee came rushing towards the coffee shop, breathing hard; it was obvious he had been looking for them for awhile.

"Yo, nurse lady! We've got a problem...!" he yelled out between gulps of air.

* * *

"...isn't it funny?" Asami's voice suddenly broke through the silence that had developed between her and Kouta, though, she hardly saw it as an awkward silence, since just being near the teen that had done so much for her already was enough, whether there were words or not, though she was getting a bit fidgety, being a talkative person by nature. "Asami promised her boyfriend she'd become a great police officer."

"Ah, that's great..." Kouta replied, not having much else to say to such a comment.

"No it isn't; Asami didn't too so great at the police academy, so her boyfriend broke up with her! And now she's single now..." the police woman grumble, shacking her fists and pouting lightly and she turned to Kouta, hopefully.

"Th-that's no good..." Kouta muttered, now getting a little nervous; Asami shifted closer to him, and she started sweating bullets.

"Ohh, you think so?" Asami continued, a smile spreading across her face adding to the suggestiveness of the whole conversation, along her shoulder now touching Kouta's; it was nearly too much for the otaku who hadn't been this close to a girl other than Saya, ever.. "It is, isn't it? Asami's the type who's really dedicated to her relationships..."

"S-sounds rough." Kouta stammered out.

"Yeah it does, right? So..." Asami pressed on, her hand now sliding a bit closer to Kouta's; his however, shrunk away from the touch of their fingertips, but that didn't seem to dampen Asami's spirit at all. "When you helped Asami earlier Kouta-san, you..."

The police woman trailed off, the dreamy smile she sent towards Kouta being more than enough to push across her growing feeling to Kouta, who was turned into a blushing, stammering mess in the face of affection from an almost complete stranger.

Luckily for Kouta's pounding heart, any further advances from the slightly older police officer were halted by the now familiar voice of the yankee.

"Hey, police woman!" his voice echoed across the roof to Asami, making both her and Kouta jump out of their skin. "That kid-the one that was with use before-isn't doin' so great. That sexy doctor lady's takin' a look at him, but she said it don't look too good! She may have to do a surgery or some shit!"

**Chapter 13, End**

**Author's Notes: Uh, I was going to continue longer is chapter, but I'm sure plenty of people have forgotten about this fic already, thanks to my long absence. I'll try to continue updating somewhat regularly, but I can't promise anything.**

**As you may already be able to tell, I won't be faithful to how this part of the storyline goes; instead of the old lady needed a transfusion of blood plasma, I'm going to have something a little easier to deal with, since the blood plasma would technically be bad at this point. **

**Now for a quick review reply...**

**To TVMaster2000: **For your review on Chapter 10: Eh, don't like it, too bad. If you don't like influence from other zombie media, you might wanna stop reading this story; there will be plenty more later on, because the HOTD zombies are just too easy to deal with. And thanks for the sarcasm, ass.

For your review on Chapter 12: This one's a bit more of a legitimate review, so I'll be a little more serious; sorry about that, but do try to understand that he was pretty much raised to follow in his father's footsteps, and though I haven't touched up on him much yet, he was a top notch Marine in his time. Plus also being raised in a strict Japanese household, Kaede would naturally have quite a few skills that would outshine a lot of others in a zombie situation.

As for him being a better version of Takashi...I dunno where you got that from; they aren't suppose to be anything alike. Takashi is suppose to have a sort of natural leading ability, and I try my best to portray that in him, while Kaede is more of the 'lone wolf' type, and would make a horrible leader.

But your advice will be taken into consideration, so I'll try and pull back on Kaede and bump up the other characters' bad-assness in their respective abilities.


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Notes: Well, TVMaster2000, you did mention something in your review that did remind me of something; Asami's death. I understand(though, it seems not many others do) that it was to show that these are kids, and they are susceptible to mental anguish during this apocalypse, but I do agree with TVMaster2000; she did die rather early, and so did the yank...but he _was_ a minor character, so I'm gonna have him die off when he does, and Asami...I'll have to think her death over a bit.**

**As an answer to TVMaster2000's question, yes, they are still going to the clinic, but for a different reason; I'll disregard the old lady's original condition all together for the sake of continuity, since, following the time line of the fic, three days have already passed since the EMP blast and the blood plasma would be bad by now.**

**And for a quick response...**

**To L-annethunder:** Thanks for the reviews; I really appreciate them, and I take those overly critical dorks with a grain of salt, taking some advice, I guess, from their complaints. And I'm glad I've made you like Rei; her character archetype is good, but she can be annoying sometimes because of the stress she put under with what happened in the manga/anime, and her wanting to go for Takashi when, frankly, her chance had already passed.

With Kaede though, she has someone she can peruse a relationship with without causing drama and crap that made her an unlikeable character.

**Alright, with that out of the way, here's the next chapter; don't forget to review! Constructive criticism and educated opinions are more than welcome!**

**Chapter 14: Valiant DEAD**

A heavy atmosphere hung over both Saeko and Kaede as they stood on the roof of the mall, near the edge so they could peer down into the parking lot; their eyes followed a group of four, the only living beings in the parking lot, as they made their way to the other side.

One of the two from the original mall survivors leading with the other three in tow; amongst them was their voted leader, Takashi, as well as Kouta. Before his departure, Takashi had but both Kaede and Saeko in charge of the rest of the group until their return; neither of them were particularly happy with this mission that left them in charge of the rest of the group for their own reasons, but neither of them had plans on going against Takashi's request of them.

They watched as their leader fell behind the other four, and turned towards the mall, looking up at the roof and raised his hand, waving the other two off; Kaede returned the wave, and watched him turn to catch up with the others. Kaede became aware that Saeko had gone back inside only when the door had closed behind her, making him turn slightly towards the noise.

Kaede shook his head slowly and turned back and looked into the parking lot, at the groaning mass of the creatures he had suggested be refereed to as creatures, and not identified as the humans they once were; they were non the wiser that living flesh had just slipped through their ranks unnoticed.

With a grimace, he turned away from the edge of the roof, and followed Saeko back into the mall it's self.

* * *

Flashback

_For the first time since arriving at the mall, both group were having a joint meeting, in a familiar place; the mattress store, where Shimada had tried forcing himself on Shizuka. This time, it was for a completely different reason, and they all stood around one of the beds with one of the mall group's younger members laying on his side._

_Shizuka was over the teen, far too busy to give any thought to what nearly happened in that same room; under her, the teen thrashed around in pain, and his side was swollen and red. Although she didn't have anything to test to confirm, Shizuka could guess from the area the pain was originating from, as well as other symptoms, that the teenager's appendix was inflamed, and possibly near bursting._

"_Appendicitis...a swollen appendix, it looks like." Shizuka reported as she moved away from the teen, frowning for a moment before smiling. "It looks pretty serious too, but I think I can remove it. It would be a simple enough operation..."_

_Her smile turned into a frown once more as something more important came to the ditzy nurse's mind._

"_If I had the right equipment..." she added, sullenly; this stuck Takashi a bit odd._

"_If it's something sharp you need, I think we can find plenty of things to use..." Takashi spoke softly to Shizuka._

"_T-that's true, but I don't think I can do something like this with stuff we can find around here..." the nurse replied, shaking her head with little confidence in what they had available to them. "It would be too dangerous to try, but, if I'm not mistaken, there's a clinic in the area."_

"_There is; I use to go there for check-up when I was younger" Takashi said with a nod. "You'd have the equipment you need, right?"_

"_They should, yes." Shizuka's voice enthusiastic once more. "The clinic's near by, so we can go and pick up what we need and..."_

"_One question sensei." Saya cut Shizuka off, before she got much further in a serious tone. "...why us?"_

_The atmosphere suddenly became heavy over the group, while the other seemed to shrink away, some understanding that the joint meeting was over, and others just having to reason to be around anymore. Shizuka was speechless in front of the teens who had already come to the understanding that saving others might mean the end; even if they didn't like it, they had avoided trying to save others from _them.

"_W-we have to help any one we can...!" Shizuka tried to sound convincing,but it was hard; deep down, she new the truth, just as the others did, but she had difficulty admitting it to herself._

"_What happens if something goes wrong? During the operation, or while we go out to the clinic. Sure we've been doing just fine against _them _so far, but what if something happens this time?" Takashi finally spoke, having difficulty himself refusing helping somebody, but he had to think of the others as their leader. "And what about afterward? If the wound gets infected or something?"_

"_Takashi's right; there's too many risks involved. For us, and him." Kaede added, looking towards the other teenager, younger than them, in the bed; he had been soothed into a sleep by someone, but he still looked like he was in great pain._

"_It's horrible...but it's true." Rei said softly with a troubled look; Saeko kept quiet, but she looked like she agreed the most about not going._

"_What is?" came the inevitable voice of innocents as Alice spoke up finally, looking up at the dark, troubled looks of the others. "Takashi-onii-chan, you're not going to help the other onii-chan?"_

"_I wish we could..." Takashi replied, not even trying to make something up or fake a smile for the child. "This might just be too much for us."_

_Tears welled in Alice's eyes, and her arms around Zeke tightened and quivered; as a child, there was no hope of her understanding what the others had been forced to through the deaths they had witnessed and the battles they fought against the undead. _

"_Then...then, if saving him is too much, why did you guys save me?" Alice asked, her voice cracking as she tried to keep from crying._

"_Um, well..." Kouta said, kneeling at Alice's side as she wiped her tears on her sleeve. "Alice-chan, this is a little different..."_

_But the damage had been done; Takashi, and the others as well, felt even worse than before. But there wasn't much of a choice; this time, it may be too risky for them to try and play the heroes._

"_Asa-I mean, this officer will go then!" came the by nor familiar phrase of the police officer Asami. "Just tell this officer where she needs to go and what she needs to get!"_

"_B-but, Nakaoka-san! It's too dangerous, especially alone!" Kouta yelled, on his feet once again._

"_Ignoring the risk for the sake of the citizenry is the duty of a police officer!" Asami replied confidently._

_Her words struck hope in many of the other survivors of both groups, and there was unanimous agreement; this time, they'd make an exception..._

* * *

They came to the street corner of the clinic, Kouta and Takashi motioned for the yank and the police officer to hold, while Kouta checked if the cost was clear; the two were once again armed, Takashi with the Benelli and Kouta with the M1 instead of the AR-10 or DSR he had claimed as his own, for the bayonet's melee advantage. When they had decided to go, besides ordering the others to stay behind, Takashi had decided to have the guns broken out, from where they were hidden.

Keeping in mind what had caused them to hide them in the first place though, the M1 and Benelli were taken discreetly for only the yank and Asami to know about, and Kaede having orders to only break the others out only in the case of an emergency.

"It was sure sneak of you guys, hiding guns like that in the mall without anyone else knowing." the yank finally commented in a whisper, pointing to the guns. "Had no idea whatsoever."

"You wanna try one out for size?" Kouta asked, holding the M1 out offering after eying the led pipe the yank used to arm himself with after motioning for them to move on.

"Nah, I'm more of a handgun guy myself." he replied, shaking his head. "Besides, you look like you could put it to better use than I can, right?"

Kouta grinned slightly, but didn't reply as they moved on; it didn't take long before they came to the clinic. The door was slightly ajar, and seemed empty from a first glance. But Takashi and Kouta knew better; taking the initiative, Takashi took a look through the door.

"How does it look?" the yank asked over Takashi's shoulder, peering in himself but, like Takashi, couldn't seem much.

"Hard to tell..." Takashi replied slowly, looking sideways at the yank. "Can I ask you something?"

"Make it quick."

"Why'd you come with us?" was his question that the other two were asking themselves as well out of curiosity.

"...I dunno." he replied simply, with a wide grin; such a simple comment was able to lighten the mood by a lot, making Takashi grin, Asami giggle, and even Kouta cracked a smile.

* * *

It was a little over an hour since Takashi and the other three had left for the clinic, and things had more or less settled down in the mall; Shizuka and another woman from the mall group were staying with the sick teenager, but the others had dispersed to do their own things within the mall.

Outside of the mattress store that was being used as an infirmary for now, Kaede stood, leaning over the railing and watching two of the other survivors argue over smoking inside of the mall, hardly paying any attention to them; he had more important things to worry about.

What if something went wrong? What if, God forbid, _they _somehow broke in? Kaede hadn't seen Saeko anywhere when he came back into the mall, but he knew he could count on her to kill plenty of the undead and keep safe, and Rei could probably take care of herself, if she got her hands on anything resembling a spear.

But what about Saya? She was with Alice and the two dogs now; Rei too, probably, now that Kaede thought about it. They should be able to hold _them _off, at least, until we be able to get the guns; but even if they could pull through, what about the mall survivors? Their safety wasn't his priority, but they'd no doubt be a factor if _they _did get it; good or bad, Kaede couldn't say, but a factor none the less.

"You look like you have a lot on your mind..."

The familiar voice of the school's nurse pulled Kaede from his thoughts and turn halfway towards her.

"Something you want to get off your chest?" Shizuka asked with an encouraging smile as she lent up against the railing like he was, only her breasts were resting against the railing more than her body was, and Kaede had to try his hardest to avert his eyes. "You can tell sensei..."

"It's nothing horribly serious" Kaede replied, shaking his head, knowing the nurse wouldn't follow his worries enough to discuss them with her, but gave her something to worry about, at least. "Just worried about everything, I guess. What about...that guy? How is he doing?"

Kaede quickly changed the subject, though he didn't actually know the teenager's name; with a gesture of his thumb, Shizuka understood, and Kaede's attempt to change the subject worked.

"Well, he's sleeping for now, but removing his appendix is the only option now; he should be fine for now, but I left Urushibara-san with him..." Shizuka answered, suddenly remembering why she had left the teen's side in the first place. "Oh yeah, I was going to change into some new clothes, like you guys did! Don't try following me and peaking now, Himoura-kun~"

"Wouldn't dream of it, Shizuka-sensei..." he muttered rolling his eyes and hardly giving the nurse or her teasing any though; the nurse pouted slightly before leaving Kaede to himself once more, for a few moments at least.

Not even five minutes after Shizuka had disappeared, rapid footsteps were approaching Kaede's position; this time, it was one of the mall survivors that Kaede was already familiar with. It was the would be rapist of the nurse, Shizuka, and he looked rushed; Kaede was ready for the worse before he even got close.

"The police woman said to come to you guys if anything happened." he said after catching his breath; none of them knew, but, before she and the other three had left, the mall survivors had a short meeting among themselves, where Asami had told them to trust the judgment of the teens, and to treat them as the ones in charge if something went wrong. "There's something you should see..."

* * *

Slowly and ever so cautiously, the four with Takashi leading and Kouta taking up the rear entered the clinic, and made their way through the dark hall to the examination rooms. There were no windows down the hall, only doors, so there was little light other than that coming from behind them.

So far, the clinic looked empty, but that hardly put them to ease. While leading, Takashi kept his eyes peeled for any movement, but it seemed the long hallway of doors was empty; the only problem then would be clearing each room while they looked for what they needed.

Just as that thought came to mind, a door slowly creaked open in front of them, halting their progress and making each of their hearts jump into their throats. They were still, waiting, but nothing came, and they were just about to brush it off as the wind when inhuman groaning was inevitably followed by a wave of bloody corpses stumbling from the examination window; one even broke the small glass window in the door, the shattering sound echoing through the clinic.

With little other choice as more of _them _started pouring from other examination rooms, Takashi and the yank began beating _them _down with blows to _their _heads, while Kouta and Asami turned to face the ones coming up from behind. Asami froze up at the sight of all the walking corpses that were once doctors, nurses or patients of the clinic, and Kouta was forced into the spotlight; with the M1's bayonet, he was able to take out a few of the undead without firing and drawing more to their position.

Either way, more of _them _were inevitably drawn from the sound of the struggle, as well as the crashing of glass when the attack started, as well as now, when another of the corpses was able to put _itself _through a receptionist's window; in response to this particular window breaking, Kouta ducked down under it, narrowly dodging the wild grab from the corpse on the other side.

Asami, who was near the receptionist window as well, wouldn't have been so lucky if it weren't for the otaku's quick reflexes; he raised the barrel of the M1 and drove the bayonet straight up and through the skull of the attacking zombie. As the body went limp, Kouta gave Asami a quick reassuring smile; it was quickly wiped off his face though, when the sound of more of _them _came crashing from the entrance of the clinic.

"Dammit to hell...!" Takashi growled from between his teeth and made a quick decision, thrusting his backpack in the hands of the yank. "I'll hold _them_ off; you go get the supplies!"

With Takashi's instructions, the yank followed by Kouta rushed into the nearest storage room while Takashi took out the approaching corpses. As soon as they were in the storeroom however, it was quickly found out that they weren't alone as a handful of the undead made _their _way towards the sounds of the struggle, unknowing the yank and the gun otaku were _their _path.

With no hesitation, Kouta rushed one and sent the bayonet of the M1 through a skull while the yank bashed one over the head with the lead pipe, successfully smashing _it's _skull and preventing the body from raising again.

"It's a damn shame though..." the yank muttered under his breath after that one, who happened to have been a rather attractive nurse before she became one of the undead.

Further into the room, Kouta withdrew the bayonet with some difficulty, the few seconds the blade was stuck in the skull was enough for another one of the undead to hone in on his grunts and charge; Kouta was barely able to thrust the bayonet at the zombie, but he didn't have enough time to make the lunge count, and the bayonet cut through the soft flesh of _it's _neck, a point that left the zombie's functions completely unharmed.

Before the zombified nurse could bite Kouta, or he do anything to the undead nurse, Asami finally lept into action; with the collapsible nightstick that every police officer was equipped with, she stabbed right through the soft flesh of _it's _eye and straight back through _it's _brain. The weight of the falling body pulled the nightstick from the body for her, and she returned the earlier smile to Kouta.

"Are you okay, Kouta-san?" Asami asked, and only got a nod from the otaku before they both noticed the yank hand successfully put down the rest of _them _that were in the room, and was gone; some shuffling of things in room branching off of the one they were in told them were he was, and what he was doing.

With their mission back in mind, they both scrambled to the nearest cupboard, and Asami began grabbing anything that looked useful while Kouta pulled his own backpack off. He held it open for her to start shoving things in, and Kouta became increasingly nervous about the sounds of the struggle in the hall were Takashi alone was holding off untold amount of the undead now.

Just as the yank returned to the room with them, and they finished filling the backpack, the inevitable shotgun blast echoed through the clinic, and no doubt a wide area around it as well. Within a few seconds of the gunshot, Takashi rushed into the room with the others.

"We can't go through the front anymore; there's too many of _them_! We'll have to find another way out" he said as he slammed the door closed behind them; the others barely got a peek at the mass of withering bodies crowding the halls now.

The yank and Kouta quickly moved to barricade the door before it was thrown in by _them_. The two worked together to get a bed up on it's edge and wedged it against the door; they also grabbed a few heavy pieces of equipment in the room and pushed them to the bed to help keep it from moving.

"We can go through the window there and get into the courtyard!" Asami suggested as soon as they finished the barricade, pointing towards a window on the other side of the room; this not only brought their attention to the potential exit, but also to the fact it was already compromised.

When they had looked to the window, they could see another horde of the undead making _their _way through the courtyard towards them, a few of the faster ones already at the window; within a matter of seconds,_ they_ broke through the window, and began pouring in.

"The fuck do we do now! Is there any other way outta here!" the yank yelled as the four were back against each other with the undead coming in through the window, and their barricades slowly deteriorating from the mass of _them _slamming into the other side.

With both exits blocked and _them _closing in on them, Takashi and Kouta's grips tightened around their guns, and Takashi thought about handing the yank the Mk 23 to use since things were getting worse by the moment, but it looked like Asami had a better idea than making this their last stand.

"The ceiling! We can get to the second floor through the ceiling!" she yelled, pointing up.

Not giving a moment's doubt, Takashi raised the Benelli upwards, and shot up into the ceiling; the first shell put a good sized hole right through, but not big enough. He shot three more shells up into the ceiling, widening the hole more than enough.

While Takashi was doing that, Kouta and the yank moved a table near, and then under the gaping hole up into the room directly above them. With the hole made, Takashi stepped away and began reloading the shotgun while pushing away one of the corpses that had gotten too close and turned the barrel towards the mass of the undead invading the room through the window. One shot was able to dismember or blow away several of _them, _which was good enough for now.

The yank held a stool stead on top of the table so Kouta could peek up into the room above them. He then pulled himself into the room and motioned for Asami to come up next.

"It's clear up here, Nakaoka-san, you come up next." Kouta called down into the room, making another quick sweep over with his eyes of the room, before turning to help Asami up who, thanks to a slip on Kouta's part, ended up laying on Kouta.

The otaku stammered and blushed at how suggestive and close Asami's face had suddenly gotten to his own.

"Call Asami by her first name now..." she said, but was suddenly off Kouta when the yank's voice called out from below them, along with a few more shotgun blasts.

"Hey you! You go up before me!" the yank yelled over the groaning and the gunshots, catching Takashi's attention.

Without a complaint, Takashi climbed up onto the table and stool, and was helped the rest of the way up by Kouta; just when he was up and safe in the room, the barricades finally were knocked in, and with no one holding off _them _coming through the window, the room was quickly being flooded with the undead.

"Hurry up! Grab my hand!" Takashi yelled out, reaching his hand out as he hung from the room above the yank; he didn't need much more incentive and ran to the table, hopping up onto it and grabbed Takashi's hand.

"Heh, piece of cake." he chuckled as he started to pull himself up with Takashi's help, but it was just too late.

Takashi watched with horror as _they _below them lunged at the yank's dangling feet as if sensing their meal was about to escape, and caught his left foot. A look of pure dread fell over the yank's face as Takashi watched one of _them _take a bite out of the yank's calf; the sound of tearing flesh was drowned out by the yank's scream as more of the undead grabbed onto his legs and began tearing them to shreds with _their _teeth.

The yank held onto the sides of the hole with all his strength against the countless corpses pulling him down, but not for hope of being pulled from their cold, deathly grasps.

"Please..." he rasped out, looking up at Takashi, who was the nearest to him. "I'm done for...don't let me come back as one of those fucking things..."

Knowing what he had to do, Takashi raised the Benelli, but he just couldn't pull the trigger as much as he knew he had to, knowing he owed it to the yank for helping them so selflessly. But his finger just froze on the trigger, and he couldn't do it.

"Please! Do it!" the yank yelled out desperately as his strength started fading against the hands pulling him down, and the pain from his legs being chewed on. "Do it!"

"T-tell us your name..." Asami said as she stepped up in front of the frozen Takashi with a sad smile for the yank, and the police revolver Kouta had 'returned' to her at the mall already in her hands. "Because you will never be forgotten!"

"Tamaru..." the yank said, realizing himself he had never even properly introduced himself to the others yet; so sad it was in this situation, his end, that his name would be known. "Tamaru Hiroshi..."

The yank's full name was followed by another scream; one of _them _had pulled _itself _up his body enough that _it _was now biting into his chest, causing blood to flow from his mouth and pool before him. But he had already accepted he was done for, and made no attempt to struggle, only holding on to the edge of the hole.

"Good bye, Tamaru-san..." Asami spoke softly as she raised the gun.

Yet another gunshot echoed through the quiet streets around the clinic, and echoed continuously in the ears of the three as they escaped the overrun clinic, leaving the mauled body of the yank Hiroshi behind, there being nothing they could do for him.

_'We gave up a life to save another...' _was the though that ran through Takashi's head as he lead Kouta and Asami across the roof, both also gravely effected by what had happened. '_Now that I think about it, I think that was our first real defeat...'_

* * *

The four teenagers stood on the roof of the mall, looking out to where the older would-be-rapist Shimada was pointing to; in the parking lot below them, a mass of what they had come to call only as '_them' _surrounded one of the many abandoned and useless cars.

The only difference between this car and the others was that this one had a group of about five people stuck on top of it, just out of reach and with no where to go without having to confront the undead.

"They were heading here to the entrance when those things started going after them" Shimada explained to the teenagers that stood with him, glancing back at them as he continued. "As soon as they got up onto the car, I came to get you guys... so, what will you do?"

Two set of cold stares fell on Shimada for his challenging words, but Kaede and Saeko both understood what he meant; with their leader having agreed that it wasn't their business to go out saving people left and right, though there were to be exception.

And that was the question; will they make an exception without the approval of their leader, or were these survivors none of their business.

"What do you say, Busujima-senpai?" Kaede spoke, breaking the silence that had fallen over them; he was sure she would be apposed to taking any risks not okay-ed by Takashi first, but they were forced into a corner and to act as temporary replacements for Takashi. "They're not too far away, so it shouldn't be much trouble."

Seeing as how Saeko only stared back at him with no verbal feedback, Kaede took the incentive with a sigh and shared the plan that had inevitably formed itself after he had seen the situation.

"Saya and I will stay up here and provide cover for whoever decides to go...it would be nice if you go, Busujima-senpai." Kaede looked over to Saeko once more before looking down at the survivors in the parking lot; Shimada was completely out of the loop now though, having no idea what the teenagers had up their sleeves. "At least one other person should go, unless we can get the help of the others. This is all assuming Saya can fire a gun and hit something..."

"Of course I can!" the pink haired genius scoffed out with a roll of her eyes in the direction of both Kaede and Rei, the two that could fire and hit something quite accurately, one only thanks to the others teachings; it seemed to be the general census to go and help these survivors, so Saeko's personal opinion was outnumbered.

And Saeko knew it, and nodded towards Kaede.

"I'll do it" she said shortly, inwardly agreeing with Kaede's plan somewhat; it was the best that they could come up with that should guarantee the safety of both parties.

Plus, it would let her get out and cause some carnage, and she wouldn't want to miss a chance like that at all.

"So, can I ask a question?" Shimada finally spoke up, looking toward Kaede who had mentioned what had confused him in the first place. "What exactly are you gonna use to 'provide cover' with? That shotgun of yours ain't gonna do much from a long distance, right?"

"Heh...well, let's just go back downstairs for a few moments, and we'll show you..." Kaede said with a small grin as he motioned everyone inside again.

On the way in, Alice and Shizuka(who was now wearing new, more casual clothes) joined the group as Kaede lead them to where most of their weapons were hidden; out of the four teenagers and the school nurse left at the mall, only Kaede actually knew where they were hidden. In fact, Rei and Shizuka were unaware any of the guns had even been brought into the mall with them other than the handguns Kouta and Takashi had, and the shotgun Kaede kept with him.

When the great hiding place was finally revealed, the others seemed a bit skeptical at first about how they ended up in a lingerie store, more so when Kaede lead them to a sales bin of large sized bras.

"Y-you hid them here?" Rei asked with obvious confusion and slight distaste.

"N-not me! It was Kouta's idea..." Kaede said in his own defense as he reached into the pile of brassiere and pulled out the first thing solid from the pile; he pulled up the MP5, which had a bra hanging by it's strap off the scope.

"I actually think it was a good hiding place..." Saya muttered, despite her own opinion about the hiding place and looking at the facts...and Shizuka's bust. "Only someone with titanic breasts would have any reason to look here..."

Kaede nodded halfheartedly, hoping that was Kouta's train of thought as well as he shook off the bra handing from the gun, and checked the magazine before setting it down; next came the AR-10, which he likewise checked, before finally pulling up his WA2000 from the bin.

Needless to say, Shimada was a little more than surprised at the magnitude of firepower these teenagers had; originally, after seeing Kaede carrying the unusual shotgun and the girl, Saeko, carrying those katanas of her, he suspected they had had good fortune in finding arms in this disaster, but defiantly not to this extent.

"J-just where did you get these from?" Shimada asked in shock, watching as Kaede pulled the strap of the WA2000 over his back, then handed the AR-10 to Saya and, with a moment of consideration, handed the MP5 to Rei after setting it to semi-automatic.

"Don't use it unless you really have to, Rei." the familiar warning came from Kaede's mouth, more because Rei wouldn't be able to fire the weapon accurately, and the fact that it had very limited ammo compared to the other guns went hand in hand with that, as he didn't want Rei trying to shoot and run out of ammo before she hit anything; with that out of the way, he replied rather simply to Shimada's question. "Here and there. Amazing what you can find after a week out there..."

With that, Kaede turned back to the others, particularly Saya who he noticed was holding the AR-10 a bit awkwardly in her hands.

"You sure you can use that?" he asked skeptically, which caused the girl in question to turn her glare onto him.

"Of course I can; I'm a genus, remember?" she retorted, her most common comeback only receiving a short nod from Kaede.

"The plan's the same then. Busujima-senpai..."

"My first name is fine, Himoura-kun" Saeko cut him off with a half smile that was easily mistaken as a kind gesture; in truth, she was holding in her excitement about getting out for awhile and shedding some blood with a 'noble cause'. "Don't worry, I'll escort them inside safely."

"...very well; Saya, let's head back up to the roof-" Kaede was once again cut off, by Shimada this time.

"I want to help out there too." he said, stepping up and towards Saeko and Rei with a serious and regretful look in Shizuka's direction. "I...I want to redeem my self for what I almost did...back then, I couldn't control myself, with everything that had happened, and I apologize for it."

There was a general silence after he spoke; they could tell his apology was sincere, and so was his wish to redeem himself, but it was unclear in who's eyes. Saeko finally looked towards Kaede and silently transferred the decision to him.

He let out a light sigh as he stepped over to Shimada and pulled the sawed-off Baikal from it's resting place on his belt, and held it up to the older man with a nod for him to take it.

"How about you; can you shoot and hit something with this?" Kaede asked as Shimada took the gun from Kaede's grasp.

"I've shot a gun before, but nothing like this thing..." Shimada said in a bit of awe as he looked the unusual shotgun over, only noticing that Kaede had pulled out a handful of extra shells from his pocket for him until they were held out for him to take.

"That's good enough; it works like a revolver, so the hammer needs to be pulled back before you shoot, and there's a latch to open the cylinder." Kaede explained as he dumped the shells into Shimada's open hand. "It takes awhile to reload, so be careful. Furthermore, sound attacks _them, _so shoot sparingly."

"I got it." Shimada said with a nod, having already known that fact of the undead, but he didn't mind being reminded; he then stepped over with the the other two that would be going outside of the mall, making it three for the rescue party. "We should hurry now!"

* * *

Rei, Saeko, and Shimada were now on the first floor of the mall, and at one of the service exits with a few of the other mall survivors; Shimada had quickly explained the situation to the others. While they did try bringing up something about the teenagers had guns, and that they shouldn't be in charge, Shimada surprised Rei and Saeko(although only slightly in the later's case) by telling them if they don't like it, they could get out of the mall or complain to the police officer later.

During this little confrontation that Shimada took care of, Rei had strapped the MP5 to her back with Kaede's words still in mind; though, without being able to really use it, she was technically unarmed, so picked up a long metal pole she spotted.

The pole was probably for plumbing or something related to that, but one end had been cut at a sharp angle, and could be a deadly weapon in the proper hands; Rei's hands to be exact.

It wasn't long before Shimada rejoined the two after finally getting a few of the more stubborn survivors off their back, and made an arrangement with one of the more agreeable survivors to lock the door back up when they left, and to open it back up when they returned.

"Are you two ready?" he asked as he unlocked the service door; with the nods from them both, he pushed the door open slowly, with the Baikal ready in case something jumped at them.

But the area around the door was clear, and they slipped from the mall unnoticed. The door clicked behind them, and Rei hesitated a moment while the other two started moving out into the parking lot.

"Don't worry; they'll unlock it when we get back" Shimada whispered back to Rei a bit loudly for her to hear; quickly following was the groaning sound of the fleshing ghouls nearby.

Obviously jumpy, Shimada whipped around with the Baikal raised, as a single walking corpse stumble into view from around the corner of the building; before he could pull the hammer of the revolver shotgun back, Saeko placed a stern hand on his forearm, and pushed it down with surprising strength.

Shimada looked towards the purple haired teen in confusion, but was offered no explanation as Saeko walked by, followed shortly by Rei; Saeko simply walked briskly past the groaning corpse towards the parking lot were the survivors were, while Rei used the pole to give _it _a hard shove.

Surprisingly to Shimada, she pushed the thing quite a bit back and made it stumble to the ground; he put together that these things don't have great balance, and assumed they could just be pushed away like a rag doll, judging how they girls treated _them _like one.

"Guess you really learn new things everyday, huh?" Shimada scoffed quietly to himself with a shrug before jogging up to catch up with the girls, who were not quite running yet, but they were in a hurry to get this done as quickly as they could.

Just as they started moving again, there was a gunshot overhead, followed shortly by another and then a scream from the parking lot; now it was time for them to run. The three quickly shot off as more and more gunshots echoed high above them.

They came around the back of the mall to the parking lot just in time to see several of the walking dead reaching for the five survivors fall as nothing but corpses; it could be assumed from either Saya or Kaede gunfire, as only one of the survivors was armed, and that was with a metal baseball bat.

As they drew closer, Saeko's Murata sword flashed from it's sheath and they became vaguely aware of what had probably drawn _their _attention to the group; one of them had a baby, raising their numbers to six, and it was crying it's head off, and no doubt had alerted _them _of the meal in their mists.

Saeko was obviously the first one there, having bottled her excitement up for long enough, and began hacking away at the crowed of corpses, but that was all that she was doing in her blood lust invoked fury; every time she cut down a few, twice as many showed up. Rei and Shimada soon followed and tried helping thinning out the wall of undead between them and the other survivors, but there was just no use, even when the one armed survivor tried helping from the inside, bashing down as many of _them _as he could.

On the roof, Kaede and Saya had an even better view of how hopeless it was down there, even with them both picking off the zombies that one of the others missed, or were too close to attacking; there was their limited accessible ammo supply to think of, and how the other temporary leader was more interested in cutting down the corpses than the mission as well. With that in mind, Kaede paused and took a look around the roof for something they could use to ensure the completion of the mission safely.

Finding nothing, he decided to improvise.

"Keep at it Saya!" he yelled over her gunshots as he slung his rifle onto his back; he was a bit surprised at how quickly she had taken to sniping, but it just went to prove she really was a genus. "I've got an idea!"

"What do you mean!" the genus in question shot back, though she kept all her attention in the scope of the AR-10.

Hearing no reply, Saya only groaned, letting him do his thing while keeping the undead off her comrades' backs. Kaede's 'plan' consisted of kicking a protruding ventilation shaft with all his strength; luckily, the thing wasn't bolted down, and after a few hard kicks, it came loose.

With one last kick, it was knocked clean off the top of the roof and fell over; Kaede quickly took hold of it and dragged it over to the edge of the roof beside Saya; she gave a glance over to it and was a bit surprised and lost, until Kaede hoisted it up over the edge, and pushed it over into the parking lot.

It was the devil's luck that, just as Kaede had caused the distraction, that the mother of the baby had gotten it to stop crying moments before the ventilation shaft hit a car. It would been quite a detraction if the car's alarm was working, but the shaft crashing into the roof and shattering the glass was enough to draw most of the mindless corpses away from the survivors.

The slower zombies were hacked down by Saeko, but both Rei and Shimada went for the car at the center of dispersing horde, knocking any of _them _to the ground if _they _got in their way. As Shimada helped them down, Rei motioned for them to be quiet; apparently, several of them didn't know _they_ were attracted by noise and tried to start their thanks when the slower ghouls were still lurking very close by.

Now that the survivors were rescued from the horde of undead, it was time for them to get back into the mall; luckily, Saeko wasn't too far gone not to notice this as well, and hacked down a few more zombies in a more gory way than really necessary as the others, plus the new survivors, started back towards the service door they had come from before taking up the rear position while Shimada and Rei lead.

Unfortunately, their luck ran out real fast as they came around the building; just when the service door was in sight, the baby, a boy not even a full year yet, started crying again at the top of his developing lungs. Every one of the undead that was limping towards the sound of the vent crashing into the car was now turned to the high pitch crying of the baby and were moving towards it as fast as their decaying brains could get the signal to the rest of _their _dead bodies.

_They _were now emerging from all over the place; from around or behind cars, from the other side of the building, everywhere _they _could, and there was now a massive amount, now that the source of the sound had moved, spreading the echo out even further and alerting more.

Above them, Kaede and Saya quickly moved from their previous position to a better one where they could see the group clearer, but they refrained from shooting just yet; both Saya and Kaede were on their last magazine, and the rest of the ammo was stored in the hidden away Komatsu.

Shimada urged Rei and the others to move faster since, for now, their path to the service door had a minimal amount of the undead blocking their path. Shimada moved to the back to where Saeko was moving to catch up to the others, slashing the arms and heads of the undead that tried getting to close.

Saeko didn't go far past Shimada before stopping to confront several of the undead chasing after the rest of the group; she knocked one aside with a swift kick and got ahead of _them _before slashing one across the shoulder, severing the upper portion of _it's _body. Before it could hit the ground, Saeko skillfully decapitated it in the same stroke, before moving in towards another.

This one, she raised her sword high and cut straight down; the corpse hardly put up any resistance to the razor sharp Murata katana, and was cut in half, right down the middle. Saeko quickly altered the direction of the blade as another zombie came up, and cut upwards at an angle, catching _it's _side, cutting it similarly to the first one; she finished it off just like the first, but only cut the head off at the jaw.

Her feet slid around on the blood slicked ground as she moved once again, and with a quick thrust, the sword went through _it's _head and the body went limp; the withdrew her sword, and with a quick movement, decapitated the corpse she had knocked down to begin with, killing the last one of _them _that posed an immediate threat to the others.

This all happened before Shimada could fully register that Saeko hadn't caught up with the others like he had expected.

"You kids really are terrifying..." Shimada muttered out despite himself; to prove his point even further, a bullet from either the AR-10 or WA2000 whizzed past him and killed one of the zombies advancing behind Shimada, reminding him of why he had stopped in the first place. "Get going; I'll distract 'em so you guys can get inside!"

Saeko didn't let her surprise hold her up long as she glanced back at Shimada for a split second and watched him pull the Baikal's hammer back before nodding shortly in his direction. Without a word, Saeko ran to catch up with the others, who were very close to the service door now, with Rei and the one man with the bat leading the way.

It looked like they would have smooth sailing the shot distance they had left, but just as that passed through Rei's head, three ghouls stumbles out from behind some trash cans, and a fourth pulled _itself _from a nearby dumpster.

Not giving _them _enough time to come attack, Rei rushed to the four corpses with the man quickly taking to her example and followed after; Rei almost effortlessly put the pointed end to the pole through one of _their _heads, right through the eye and out the back of the head. Pulling it back out took a bit more effort though, and one of _them _almost got _their _hands on her from behind if it wasn't for the sharp shooters on the roof.

Rei payed no mind to the other body as it fell in a heap behind her as the wrenched the pole free, letting the corpse fall onto _its _back. She pulled the pole back to her body quickly as another one of the undead drew near. With a flip of the pole, she hit _it _hardacross the face with the unsharpened end, making _it _stumble back.

Just like with the other, Rei thrust the sharpened end through the corpse's head, right between the eyes; it was much harder to withdraw the pole this time, and Rei ultimately left it protruding from the body's head when the sounds of a gunshot, much louder than the ones above alerted her, and the sounds of a nearby struggle caught her attention.

The man, who had confronted the last of the four zombies blocking their advancement hadn't had so much luck or skill to kill _it _before being overpowered. He was lucky in the sense that was able to get the metal baseball bat between him and the corpse before _it _could bite, and now, he was struggling to keep it that way.

Rei was quick to come to help, rushing over and grabbing the ghoul by the remaining tatters of _its _shirt used all her strength, and a bit of help from the man, to throw _it _off of him, and against the wall. The man scrambled to his feet as Rei pulled the MP5 off her back, but before she could get close to the corpse to kill _it, _the man stepped forward. He knew that _they _were attracted to sound, and stopped Rei before she added something else for the undead to come after them for.

Rei understood what he was doing, and backed off; she turned back to the others to see Saeko viciously cutting down more zombies that were approaching from the side while the mother of the baby tried unsuccessfully to quiet the child. She motion them to head towards the door once again, while the man raised the bat and bashed it down over the zombie's head, making it still.

"Come on; we're almost there!" she called out in just barely a whisper, motivating them into moving again even though they were nearly surrounded by the undead; with the mall's walls blocking two sides of them, and the undead approaching on the other, they had been nearly given up if it wasn't for the two teenager's will to go on(even though they were mistaking Saeko massacring the undead as some sort of desperation)

All while this was happening, much further behind them Shimada fighting off a few of the undead and causing enough of a distraction to at least slow down the corpses moving up behind the group; fearing being overrun, he was only using the Baikal as a sort of club at the beginning, but that idea was quickly scrapped as he couldn't actually land a killing blow on any of _them _with it.

So, he did the only thing he could to, and fired the shotgun at the mass of zombies. He was able to maim several of the more faster ones, but the wall of corpses converging from miles around to the only source of sound. With a quick look back, Shimada saw the others starting to head towards the service door once more, and were nearly there; he decided it was time to retreat now, but just when he was about to turn and run to catch up, one of _them _caught his arm.

Shimada's heart jumped into his throat as the hands gripped his arm, and the jaws of the zombie opened wide before starting to lower onto his arm. Before _its _jaws could clamp down on him however, the corpse's knee burst open as a bullet ripped though it; it had been a tricky shot, but luckily Kaede had pulled it off. The zombie's body jerked to the side as _it _started falling and the bite narrowly missed Shimada's arm.

Quickly recovering, Shimada jammed the barrel of the gun down _its _throat and pulled the trigger before turning and running full speed to the service door, were the rest of the survivors had gotten to with Rei; one of the other survivors of the group had gotten to the door first and, upon finding it locked, began frantically banging on the door.

To their relief, it was soon opened from the inside and the survivor who had been banging on the door rushed in; the others quickly caught up and were not panicked enough to try and shove their way in. The mother and her infant were the first ones in, and then the others filed in quickly after with Rei and the man with the bat at the rear.

Rei stayed outside, waiting for Saeko and Shimada to get inside while the man with the bat kept the survivor from closing the door after them; he had panicked after seeing how many of _them _had been attracted, and nearly shut the door if not for the man with the bat. He was gone now, and the man was holding the door for them while Saeko made sure none of the undead got to the door.

Not wanting Saeko to get overrun, Rei shouldered the MP5 and looked through the scope to try taking out a few of the undead herself, but learned the hard was that the scope was the same that had originally been on the M1, and therefore was no longer working like it should.

She didn't let that discourage her, so she quickly figured out she could peer through the small gap between the scope and the railings of the gun to look down the MP5's original sights; it would be difficult no doubt, but Rei tried her best aiming at one of the approaching undead Saeko wouldn't be getting anytime soon.

The first shot missed the zombie she was aiming at and hit another behind _it _with little effect; the next hit, but just barely, and ripped off the corpse's ear and tore open the cheek. Rei altered her aim just a bit, and fired again, this time hitting just under _its _eye and dropped the corpse.

That was the only one she was able to actually hit, unfortunately, before she was unable to calmly aim; Shimada's path to the door had been cut off and things were looking bad for him. He had started off with similarly bad luck with getting any good head shots with the shotgun, and by the time he had got it down to aim for the neck area and obliterate the lower part of the head and the neck altogether, he had run out of ammo.

Without a chance to reload, he reverted to using the shotgun as a club, but there was no chance of him getting out, now that his exit was closed off. He beat away one of the corpses and turned back towards the doors were Rei was waiting, with Saeko not too far away; he was happy to see them waiting for him, but there was just no point.

"Get inside! Go on!" Shimada yelled over the mass of groaning bodies around him as her looked to the two teenagers; he turned and bashed away a few more of the undead with the shotgun, feeling the wooden handle he was using to hit _them _start to splinter and give way. "There's no way I'm getting out of here; just leave me behind!"

Rei didn't want to leave him behind, even after what he had tried; no one deserved to be ripped a part and then come back as one of _them, _even the attempted rapist like Shimada. She almost went out to try and help him, but Saeko, who had already figured Shimada as a lost cause, was already at the door, and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Torn between what was 'right' and what was 'safe,' Rei let herself be lead back into the service door; she paused a moment and looked back to Shimada one last time.

"Thank you, for all your help" she yelled out back to him, hoping to at least put his mind at ease for what he did. "I'm sure everyone will agree that you're forgiven!"

With that, Rei really did put Shimada's mind at ease, and he watched through the reaching hands as Rei and the others disappeared into the mall, safe. He bashed the shotgun into one more skull before it broke completely as he felt the cold hands of the undead start to latch onto him.

On a whim, he looked up to the mall's roof and saw the other two teenagers that had saved his ass more than a few times, and he felt his eyes connect with Kaede's.

"Sorry for breaking your gun, kid..." he muttered as the first bite came on his shoulder, the mass of zombies around him now thrown into a furry now that they had a meal. "Bet you wanna shoot me now, huh?

Kaede kept eye contact with Shimada the whole time, both he and Saya having guess what had happened from their bird's eye view. After a moment, Saya raised the AR-10 to at least prevent the brave man from raising once more; it just felt right that he would rather someone else kill him than to be eaten and come back. Before she could aim properly, Kaede lowered the rifle with his hand.

"You're empty anyways..." he said, looking out of the corner of his eye as Saya released the magazine to find it indeed empty, and no round in the chamber; he lifted his WA2000 and looked through the scope, looking down and finding Shimada looking right back at him. "And I only have one round left..."

* * *

With their rescue mission completed and the others inside the mall, Kaede had sent Saya back down as well with orders for Shizuka to check out the survivors after the AR-10 and MP5 were hidden, this time in their meeting place, the coffee shop.

He on the other hand would wait on the roof until Takashi and the others returned. Luckily, they had left from a different part of the mall, so when they did return a little over an hour later, they didn't run into the mess of zombies that had been left after the rescue mission.

Even from the roof, Kaede could see that they had the same luck on their mission at the clinic as they had here at the mall; they returned successful, but with one less survivor...

**Chapter 14, End**

**Author's notes: God damn, it took me too long to finish this chapter. I'm gonna try to update more often, but I'm sure you guys have heard that millions of times from different people, so meh...sorry for the delays, and they probably won't be ending anytime soon.**

**And as some may notice, I'm not going into a great deal of description in clothing other than for Kaede(for now, anyways); that's because their appearances are the same as in the manga, so look towards the manga for their apparel. **

**Oh, and I just went and did a little rereading of the manga...I really changed how Shimada was, huh? Well, other than how he died(which was a last minute decision, by the way), how quickly he came to terms with Takashi's group and their skills; in the manga, he was a douche until the escape from the mall. And I've decided Asami's fate, by the way; she'll live for now, but she'll eventually have to die, sadly.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Notes: Like plenty of other authors, I welcome both comments that express how readers feel about my story, and comments on what could be done better; i.e. constructive criticism. I dunno about other people, but I believe constructive criticism should be a intelligent review of things that can be done better; personal feelings may be involved and influence your review, and that's fine. Everybody had their opinions. But when you let your opinion completely override any scraps of intelligences, don't bother fucking reviewing.**

**I'm focusing on your review, Mr. Broken Juggernaut. There was no point to your review, and frankly, you don't like how I incorporate my original characters, then you can just fuck off, and I'd appreciate if you keep those kind of dumb-ass opinions to yourself from now on. This is all assuming you're following this fic, so if you aren't...well, I guess this could just be a rant to enlighten people a bit.**

**Oh, and this isn't just a TakashixSaeko fic, there will be many other parings, so of course it's not going to feel like a TakashixSaeko fic, cause that's not the one and only pairing; it's just categorized like that because that pairing's the most easily identifiable pairing of the fic.**

**Anyways, like I said, reviews are welcomed and encouraged, but please don't use it to insult me or my characters, or how I use them.**

**Chapter 15: Attention all DEAD Shoppers...**

"Alright, we need to talk"

Hirano Kouta's voice echoed slightly in the restaurant the four had decided to use as a meeting place, since the cafe that they were using before had been reoccupied by the survivors of the mall. That in it's self had been a pain, since they were waiting there to try and force the teenagers to hand over their guns; it was then that they had found out a rescue mission had been pulled off during their absence, and had caused a commotion among the survivors.

Luckily, the police officer Asami's authority was still lasting, and she made the survivors back down from trying to disarm the 'violent and gun waving' teenagers, for now anyways.

Even so, the survivors refused to give up the cafe back to them, and four had ended up here, at the restaurant, with Saya, Rei, Alice and even Saeko waiting just outside the entrance; though she had been left in charge as well, she told Takashi she didn't have much to do with the rescue plan, so talking with Kaede would be the better idea.

As for the school nurse, she was absent from the restaurant completely; she was busy with back in the mattress store turned operating room, removing the inflamed appendix of the sick mall survivor.

Takashi agreed, and he, Kouta and Asami listened to his retelling of what had happened, Shimada's death, and the ammo for both the WA2000 and AR-10 had been used up, and if they planned on using them again any time soon, they'd need to get some more from the Komatsu.

That had all happened with in less than twenty minutes since the three had returned, Takashi and Asami at least were using the time to rest as Kaede reported to the leader; after that had been a silence, that was broken by Kouta in his want to make sure nothing like this happened again by having Takashi analyze and understood what had brought this outcome.

"...there's not much we need to talk about; Kaede explained what happened here pretty well, and we know what happened out there." Takashi muttered tiredly; among that, he really did not want to talk about their losses anymore than they really had too.

Too bad for him, Kouta felt this was something they really needed to do.

"No! We need to think hard about what happened today! In both cases!" Kouta's eyes turned towards Kaede and surprisingly, he was met with a fierce glare from the usually laid impartial Kaede; it was obvious that Kaede didn't want to think about what happened at his end either. "We need to understand where we went wrong!"

"Why!" Takashi snapped back, getting a bit more than a little annoyed with Kouta's persistence.

"What we need to do is go back and correct our answers on the test we just bombed for next time, so we don't make the same mistakes, get it?" Kouta said, speaking his mind in a way Takashi could hopefully understand. "We let two perfectly able people die today, when we shouldn't have let anyone die! Why!"

"There was nothing we could have-"

"No! It was a complete failure." Kouta cut Takashi off before he finished his argument, and continued before he had the chance to speak again. "We shouldn't have let you try to hold the entrance on your own; up until now, we've been following what you've wanted exactly, and there haven't been any problems. But mistakes were made at the clinic. We didn't need three people going through the whole clinic for what we needed; two would have been just fine..."

"Two? That would mean me..." Takashi started, what Kouta was saying they should have done sinking in. "And Tamaru-san or someone, could have..."

"That's exactly right; two of us could have kept guard, while the other two went inside to look for what we needed!" Kouta finished for him, before turning to Kaede. "And, in your guy's case, you shouldn't have even let that man Shimada come along; because of it, no only did you have to shoot him, we also lost a gun and some ammo. It may not seem like much, but in the long run it would have been better to have kept them!"

"Stop it! No body wants to talk about this right now!" Asami finally burst, tears welling in her eyes; it seemed the mentioning of the second death by the living's hand and not by the dead was too much for her. Asami...Asami shot someone. S-she killed Tamaru-san!"

"That's why we need to talk about it..." Kouta said, trying to keep his voice calm and level while still firm; it pained him to see Asami cry and he wished he had stepped forward back then to prevent her from having to do it, but it had been done, and more importantly, something like this happening in the future needed to be prevented at all costs. "We need to understand what made it come to that so we can prevent it from happening again, to anyone."

"Those two seem to be getting along..." Rei commented on Kouta's sudden change of attitude when it came to dealing with the police woman; she, Saya, Saeko and the child Alice were at the other end of the restaurant in the waiting area.

Although Rei was the only one really actively watching and listening in on the conversation, peaking around the wall separating the dinning area from the waiting area, Saya and Saeko could hear everything clearly from where they were at; Saya was sitting in a chair, Saeko leaned against the wall near the entrance to keep an eye out, and Alice, who wasn't paying attention to much of anything, what playing with Zeke and Yuki.

"Personality has nothing to do with it." Saya responded to Rei's observation, though, typical of Saya, didn't offer an explanation to her comment until it was asked for.

"What are you talking about? Hirano and the police woman are getting close so they need to take thing more seriously or-"

"Do you have any idea what happened to people when they're afraid?" Saya asked, cutting Rei off like usual; the brunette was use to it by now, and just kept quiet as Saya continued. "He's beginning to see how savage people have become since the Outbreak, and he also knows what it's like to kill someone first hand. The fear of death, of killing to stay alive; it doesn't matter how tough a person is, it still causes post-traumatic stress."

"But we haven't killed anybody..." Rei started off slowly at what Saya was suggesting. "It was _them_! _They _aren't human!"

"That's how we've decided to think! We need to protect our sanity after all." Saya replied with a light sigh. "Whoever decided to think of _them _as not human realized that we'd have to keep fighting against these things that were once people. It's easier to kill something if you don't think of it as a human being, even if it is just that, a human."

Although Rei knew this as a truth, having spent so long making herself think of the things they've been fighting as non-humans, it had an impact on her like it was something new when she realized that _they _were humans just like they were at one point.

"I certainly agree with you...but is that all you were getting at?" Saeko finally spoke up while Rei was silent with that little reminder.

"Of course not" Saya replied with a shake of her head, looking over to Saeko now what was to her right. "When I was with my Papa and Mama...I finally had accepted how things had changed and probably won't be going back to normal for quite some time. I'm sure there's something...or someone for you both that makes all this pain bearable?"

For Rei, it was easy for Kaede to be the first thing to pop into her head when Saya had mentioned someone helping her cope with things, but for Saeko, Takashi wasn't the first thing to pop up; the thrill of the battle was first, then Takashi when she got to thinking about things.

"For Kouta, that's what the police woman is doing; he's leaning on her since, before we came here, Kouta had been relying on the guns we had and the use he could provide with them" Saya said, remembering how important the guns were to him and how he wouldn't give them up back at the mansion a few days ago.

"What about Shizuka-sensei and Alice-chan?" Rei finally asked after thinking about what Saya had said and understanding her point better.

"Marikawa-sensei has many responsibilities; she;s our driver, physician, and the only adult in our group" Saeko had answered before Saya, having an understanding of what Saya was getting at before she fully explained herself, so she was able to point out a few of the group's escapes. "She leans on fulfilling those responsibilities as her escape."

"As for the munchkin..." Saya started, and just so happened to have caught the attention of Alice as she was speaking.

"Who's a munchkin, Saya-chan?" Alice asked cheerfully as she started for the genus with a smile on her face.

With the sweetest look, Saya turned to face the much younger girl.

"Oh, that would be..." once Alice was close enough, Saya caught her in her arms, and began tugging on her cheek. "You, obviously. Munchkin!"

Rei let out a light laugh at the familiar sight of Saya teasing Alice, while Saeko had looked away with a sigh; none of them had been able to tell the meeting going on inside the restaurant had come to an end, or that they could hear them just as well as they could hear their conversation earlier. The girls didn't even notice the footsteps coming to the waiting area until Asami pocked her head out from around the corner.

"Oh! You were all out here?" she asked, surprised to see almost all of Takashi's group waiting behind the wall; without a worry about the meeting of the four that hadn't been officially ended yet, she motioned them around the corner and into the restaurant with her. "C'mon in"

Asami lead the four into the restaurant with her, but it was still a long walk across to where Kouta, Takashi and Kaede were sitting quietly.

"I'm worried though..." Rei said in a quiet voice as the followed the police officer. "For all three of them; it seems like they have to deal with a lot of the stress right now."

"I know what you mean..." Saya replied with a slow nod, Rei having brought up an important point about the three males. "Takashi, Kouta and even Kaede may become dangerous themselves; they might just lose it and snap one of these days at this rate...!"

"What can we do then!" Rei asked quickly, surprised but when she considered everything, such a danger was very real and possible.

"That's easy..." Saeko was the one to answer that question as she took a few extra steps to catch up to the others, her eyes mostly focusing on Rei but did look over to Saya as well. "We just have to do everything that we can, as companions to them."

"Wh-what do you mean by that!" Rei stammered with red tinting her cheeks; she wasn't the only one who blushed at that comment, but Saya's face was hidden from the others and they weren't able to tell.

"All that I mean is that I don't intend to forget that I'm of the female sex, and you two shouldn't either..."

With that last comment, Saeko walked ahead and sat down at the table across from where the others were sitting, and Alice sat down as well; Saya and Rei caught up and took seats with the others while Asami had sat back down with at the other table with the males, and the guns.

Since they weren't allowed back to their usual meeting place, they had kept a hold of the guns instead of hiding them again, so the three rifles and the Benelli were leaning against the edge of the table, and the MP5 was laying on the table on it's own. On the floor there was also a bag of medicine that Takashi and Kouta had brought from the clinic; Shizuka had taken what she had needed and they had held onto the rest.

Since the attention had gone to the guns, Asami had assumed they were all thinking about how they would deal with the other survivors wanting to take them from them, and decided to speak up about that.

"Asami'll do everything she can, too." she said, looking towards the teenagers that had managed to survive so long with no help from anyone other than themselves. "At least until Matsushima-senpai gets back from headquarters to help us, Asami will stay here and do her best to work with everybody and to keep the others from taking what isn't theirs."

It was nice to see her so determined, but Kaede, Saeko and Saya exchanged exchanged glances with Takashi; should they tell her they had just come from the police headquarters and found it empty other than the countless undead they had fought against during their night there and that this officer had been more than likely one of them, or keep it to themselves and keep her happy?

That thought process was interrupted by Rei catching Takashi's attention by holding out a bottle in front of him.

"You look tired, Takashi; this medicine helps you sleep really well. I use to take it as a kid" she said while Takashi took the bottle and took a look at it; Saeko leaned over his should and took a look as well, reading the label carefully.

"It's a sexual stimulant..." Takashi muttered with a red tint on his cheeks.

"W-what? No, I didn't...I must have gotten the bottles mixed up!" Rei tried explaining, blushing.

"Well, it'll certainly get you sleeping nicely..." Saeko said with a small laugh, only making the two blush more and the others laugh; Saya had to push off Alice asking what a stimulant was, and Kouta had sighed at the whole mix up, only to have his own attention pulled from the others.

"Kouta-san?" Asami spoke up, continuing when she had his attention. "Asami's feeling a lot better now, thanks to you."

"Oh, uh, you're welcome, Asami-san." Kouta replied with a smile.

"Asami remembers when she was in the police academy they use to tell everybody to talk with a superior after coming back from a really bad crime scene because it would just become too much for one officer otherwise!" Asami spoke in her usual cheerful attitude; at first, Kouta wasn't sure what she was getting at, but when she looked down sadly, he was getting the idea. "Even though...you're only in high school, but even you seemed to know that already, and Asami's a full fledged police officer but she forgot. She's so useless..."

"N-no, I just happened to know that and did it before you could." Kouta quickly said to keep Asami from crying again, as it seemed she was close to tears again. "Asami-san's really an incredible police officer!"

"Kouta-san...!" was all she replied with in a dreamy tone and a smile.

Since it was all about distractions at that moment, Alice decided to point it out to Saya how Asami and Kouta were getting closer.

"Hey, hey, Saya-chan-"

"Onee-sama!" Saya quickly and firmly corrected the youngster, though it flew right over her head and she continued as if Saya hadn't said anything.

"It looks like the police lady really like Kouta-chan!" Alice said in a worried tone; she may have been a kid, but she could tell Saya had some feeling for the otaku, and figured Saya would want to know about something like that.

"Yeah, isn't that weird?" Saya replied with a laugh which confused the girl.

"But, Kouta-chan and Saya-chan-"

"Onee-sama!" Saya again corrected the child, but again it went right over the kid's head; even so, Saya left it at that. "Don't worry about it, munchkin. Let me teach you something; I always like being the best, but I can't always be the best at everything or I'd have nothing, get it?"

"But I like it when you're the best Saya-chan!" Alice replied with an innocent smile on her face, unaware she was continuously getting on Saya's nerved by adding the chan suffix to the end of her name; it inevitably lead to another round of pulling Alice's cheeks.

"Um...Kouta-san." Asami once again caught the otaku's attention; she time, she didn't wait for him to face her before speaking. "Are you going to leave?"

A simple enough question, it put everything on the line; his growing friendship with the police officer, and his comrades, and everything they had worked together to stay as a single group.

"We need to find Takashi, Kaede, and Miyamoto-san's families." he replied as best he could, hoping she leave it at that; of course, it wouldn't be that easy.

"But not your own, right? Couldn't you just stay here, Kouta-san?" Asami's voice was barely over a whisper as she spoke to the otaku she had started falling for, her hands seeking out one of Kouta's, holding it gently in her own. "If you're worried about what Asami can do, s-she'll do anything and everything for you..."

The hint of suggestiveness in her voice wasn't lost on anyone listening in, especially not on Kouta; he completely froze up, choking on the words that tried coming from his throat. With a longing glance to Saya and the unreadable expression on her face made him make his mind up for himself.

"I...already have companions I'm with..." Kouta, a small, remorseful smile on his lips.

A look of shock fell on Asami's face before fading into sadness as she bowed her head; to everyone, it appeared as if she'd start crying, and Kouta started panicking.

"I-I'm sorry..." Kouta started in a worried tone; the police woman gulped down her sadness and surprised everyone when she looked up with a smile, though there were tears in the corners of her eyes.

"It's okay. I had a feeling you'd say something like that!" she finally replied in the best voice she could.

All at the same moment, Saya wasn't sure how she felt about Asami taking the rejection so well; it seemed to have strengthened their bond much more, and while her smart-ass side was telling her that that was good, that the otaku wouldn't look towards her for comfort anymore, but her heart. Well, her heart was aching and telling her otherwise, creating a clash of feeling inside the pink haired genius.

The heart-filled moment between the otaku and the police officer was abruptly broken when the dogs started barking at the window; nothing new, since the smell of _them _normally drew this reaction, and while they were in the safety of the mall, the group had started treating it like they were barking at cars(although, Kaede did keep an eye on his dog, since Yuki was more reliable and would warn them if the undead had gotten inside by chasing _them _down).

What had really interrupted the moment was Alice, who had drifted over with them out of boredom; she had suddenly made a sound that drew attention to her, and Rei had gone over to investigate, since Kouta and Asami, the two that were actually closer, were still in the middle of their 'moment'.

"What is it, Alice-chan?" Rei asked when she was standing behind the younger girl.

"A police lady...over there..." Alice replied, pointing out the window; Rei saw what the little girl was pointing at almost immediately, there being nothing to hide it in the parking lot now.

Kaede and Saeko, the only two who's mind were still on track about telling the police officer that they had been to the station already and what they saw, suddenly tensed up; both of them already knew it wasn't going to end well for Asami.

"D-don't tell me that's..." Kouta was the third to see, and it was indeed another police officer, a female one too; before he could say anything to Asami, the officer was already at the window.

With her legs suddenly weak and her head shaking back and forth, it was more than obvious she was trying to deny what she saw. That reaction alone already confirmed Kouta's fears; it was the Matsushima-senpai Asami was always talking about.

"She didn't make it to the police station..." Asami finally was able to say as it sunk in, her denial fading away after having repeated 'no' over and over again nearly hysterically; the tears she had fought back from moments earlier fell for a whole new reason. "She died right after leaving!"

Asami fell to her knees sobbing hard while the others stood around her; most of them had doubted the other officer's survival from the beginning, and while others had hoped she had lived, they all knew it was a doomed attempt from what they had seen and experienced at the police station themselves.

Unknown to any of them, a few of the original mall survivors had come looking for the officer for one of their meetings(an attempt to get the gun-totting teenagers out of their safe haven, no doubt) had come to the entrance of the restaurant at that very moment.

"Nobody...there's nobody..." Asami shuttered, just barely able to keep herself standing against the window, her whole body shaking. "Nobody's coming to help us!"

Asami slid to her knees after the outburst, sobbing uncontrollably while Kouta tried to calm her down; there was no point in hiding it now, so Kaede stepped up before anyone else, knowing they were putting it off or was Saeko. She was the only other that would have maned up and told her, he doubted Saeko would soften the blow at all; the police officer was already at the edge of a mental breakdown, telling her their wasn't any hope at the police station anymore was going to be bad enough, and Saeko's cold attitude wouldn't help at all.

It would be hard enough as it was to tell her without pushing her over the edge as it was.

"Officer Nakaoka...there's something else you need to know." Kaede started off, hesitating; it looked like those who were paying attention to him steeping closer to Asami had already figured out what he was about to say, but Kouta was to busy trying to get through to her. "We've...already been to the police station. The only thing we found were _them, _and an evacuation notice, for two days ago at Shintoko Elementary school."

That was the best Kaede could do, and for a horrible second, it almost looked like the information had really made Asami snap; at that moment, Saya noticed the sound of retreating footsteps from the waiting area. Assuming they were from the eavesdropping mall survivors, she kept it to herself for now, and adjusted her glasses, already thinking about just what that meant to them as a separate group.

"Asami-san!" Kouta yelled out, finally getting the officer to look up to him; her eyes were wide and fearful, but still there, barely. "Get a hold of yourself!"

"W-why didn't you tell me...?" she said just barely above a whisper before standing straight up, and fleeing from all of them. "This can't be happening!"

Kouta watched her go, but before he could go after her, something else caught his attention; namely, what he would be blaming for adding to Asami's break down.

Without warning, Kouta lunched himself up at Kaede, grabbing his shirt collar roughly and slammed him against the glass window; such a sudden and violent outbreak by Kouta against one of their own shocked the others to the point of not moving.

"K-Kouta! What the hell do you think you're doing!" Saya yelled, moving towards the two; the cold and nearly murderous look in Kaede's eyes stopped her though.

The fact that it was Kaede Kouta had turned on made them more fearful for Kouta than the other, and without cause; however, Kaede seemed pretty passive with the hold, even if his dog wasn't. The white Akita was about to tear up Kouta's to protect her master if it wasn't for him calling her off.

"Sit, Yuki" he said sternly, and the dog obeyed seconds from attacking, and only then did Kouta start to realize his mistake, though did not make a move to release Kaede.

"Why? Why did you have to tell her that, now of all times!" Kouta roared in Kaede's face, a vein popping in his forehead.

"We should have told her from the beginning!" Kaede shot back, still not making any move of his own to force Kouta off of him. "She needed to know, now more than ever so she...none of the other survivors try and make the same mistake! When we have information as important as that, it should be our top priority to spread the word to those who need it; we may not be able to save everyone we see, but we can help prevent a few deaths along the way!"

Kaede's words had hit Kouta more that if he had reacted to him with violence, and he let Kaede go after a moment. Before anyone could say anything, Kouta turned tail and ran after Asami, grabbing the AR-10 from where it stood on instinct as he raced to the exit.

"...you alright?" Takashi finally asked of Kaede, who was standing, well, leaning, were Kouta had pushed him against the glass window; a few of his shirt buttons were popped, but her looked alright, but Takashi wasn't exactly asking about his body.

"I'll be fine after a moment..." he replied with a short nod; Takashi and the others took this as a cue to take leave themselves, and picked up their own guns on the way out, Saya grabbing the MP5 while walking with Alice, who was taking the fight pretty well.

As soon as the others were out of sight and not particularly caring about Rei being there, Kaede let his anger get the best of him. Pushing off the window and with one fluid turning motion, slammed his fist into the window as hard as he could.

Being almost five inches thick, he didn't come anywhere near breaking the glass, but blood splattered around where his fist hit; luckily, he didn't break or fracture anything, but he sure did split his knuckles in a few places.

"You know, I'd normally beat someone's face in for something like that..." Kaede commented with his back to Rei, taking a few shuttering breaths to completely calm himself; Kaede wasn't too well known for fights especially when he had gotten into high school, but there were stories of him from middle school Rei was aware of.

"But you didn't." Rei said as she moved up and hugged Kaede from behind and a smile; a moment of silence fell over them that was soon interrupted by the sound of dripping blood. "Now let's go see if Shizuka-sensei can take a look at that...but that was pretty stupid of you. You didn't break your hand, did you?"

"Better this then Kouta..." he trailed off with a light sigh, opening his fist to a short of pain up his arm before closing it again; swelling like a bitch but nothing was broken, and only shook his head in response to her question of broken bones.

He'd let the nurse say for sure if anything was broken.

* * *

The two that had been sent out to find the police woman had returned to the 'base' of the original mall survivors; it was really just the back of one of the mall's furniture outlets, and was being used as both a place where they all slept and lived out their daily lives. They didn't really go out very far into the mall, and stayed together out of basic instinct.

After overhearing everything that they had, they were quick to inform the others of what they had overheard from the other survivors and the police lady. In a few short words, no less...

"The police woman that went for help is dead!" the middle aged business man that had been one of the two(the other being the only young woman among the mall survivors) reported, getting everyone's attention, and fast.

Luckily, they had become so use to bad news and were doubting the officer's success, so their first reaction wasn't panic. Their reactions were mixed depending on their own personal hopes; surprise and sadness for those who had put their hopes on the police officer, anger for some, and fear about what they would do next, but one thing was clear now.

They couldn't trust the police with their safety anymore.

"What do we do now!" one of them shouted, breaking the silence that had settled around them

"T-the police should be protecting us!" yet another of the survivors yelled who wanted to keep believing in a higher authority, and since the two that had gone out didn't stay long enough, it lead to this: "I know! We all shout head to the police station! It's bound to be safe there!"

"Don't get your hopes up! The police these days are just a bunch of lazy asses!" the elder smoking man butt in, to crush any, in his opinion, stupid ideas.

Taking that train of thought but approaching it in a much more intelligent manner, he quickly thought of the problems they'd run into if they tried it.

"How would we get there then? Cars don't work anymore, and it would be suicide if we tried walking! Think of that police woman." he said, looking to the man who suggested the police station; expecting no answer, he continued, "Plus, we have tons of food and water here! As long as we keep the entrances sealed, those monsters outside can't get in, and then all we have to do is wait and be rescued..."

Before he could even finish his thought, the others jumped on his opinion, asking who would save them, when will they be saved, how they would be saved, until the woman finally spoke up.

"What about those kids? Let's go together with those kids until we find the police; you all saw how good they were..."

"Good at what? Murdering people!" one of the survivors spoke up against the woman's idea of going with the teenagers. "Those bastards only care about themselves; think about it. We all know we still have a chance at getting things back to normal, and even curing those people who are infected with whatever disease it is-"

While very few people among these survivors still thought that way after a full weak of dealing with with what couldn't be called anything but zombies, and knowing the truth was they were dead, the man still had a bit of a point, her soon proved.

"-they are already pointing guns at anything that move and killing them! They're just taking advantage of this disaster to do what they want, and don't care about killing anyone!" he finished, leaving everyone else to debate in their minds if they should agree with such an opinion as his; on one hand, he believed those things outside were still people, but there was no chance of that being true, and on the other hand, they did look like people, and there probably wasn't much of a different mindset to kill living people than re-killing the undead.

To top it off, he did have a point about them arming themselves and doing things they deemed unnecessary for their survival.

"Kids these days are nothing but a bunch of lazy asses anyways." the older man said as he lit up yet another cigarette, the other having disappeared over time and then completely from his hands when no one was watching.

"They did stop that one man from raping that nurse though." the woman pointed out to no one in particular, still convinced the teenagers were who they needed to be with to survive, and then attacked the man's opinion about the teens being evil. "And how can you call those things out there people still? We've all see people _die and then get back up. _They aren't normal people anymore, dumb-ass!"

"What did you just say, bitch!" the man roared in defense of his position, and the two started throwing hostile words back and forth, ignoring others attempts to get them to stop their bickering.

"Cut it out! The point is we can't rely on those kids to help us out!" the business man finally yelled over and stopped the fight. The most important thing we need to do is to get somewhere safe!"

"We're safe enough here as it is!" the man who had earlier mentioned staying in the mall spoke up again. "With all the food and water here, we're safe; when all that runs out, then let's talk about going somewhere else if we haven't been rescued by the Self Defense Force or something!"

More yelling came of this as opinions clashed, nearly all of them disagreeing with each other; the only ones whose opinions didn't clash with others were the ones keeping quiet, and that was only the elderly couple and a two teenagers, and one of them didn't keep quiet for long.

"You're all gonna die..." one of the teenagers said at the best moment, where everyone was momentarily quiet; the kid had shoulder length greasy hair and wore a coat and a skull-printed shirt, an all around gloomy looking kid.

Most importantly, he was armed, despite there being no real need for it, with a kitchen knife picked from one of the stores, and probably a high quality one too.

"H-hey now, what do you mean by that?" the business man, who happened to be the nearest one to the teen thumbing the sharp edge of the knife, stuttered fearfully.

"You're all gonna die." he repeated, his voice rising in volume as he spoke and a crazy look in his eye that put more and more of the survivors on edge. "Nobody's gonna come save us! There's no 'safe place'; you're all gonna die! And you're all gonna turn into monsters too!"

"Hey! Don't go bunching us all together like that! I'll do everything I can to make sure I live through this and see my wife and kids again!" one of them cried out, leading the teen on to reveal his 'source of knowledge'.

"I'm a huge fan of zombie movies, so I know everything that will happen in this situation!" he shouted, swinging the cleaver around wildly as he spoke, pointing it person to person. "Those high school kids are gonna get eaten as well! It doesn't matter if they have guns, or if you guys hide; it doesn't make any difference! Humanity is doomed!"

The teen then burst out into hysterical laughter from spreading his own words of wisdom into the panicking adults and the fear and doubt he put in their hearts despite him spewing nothing but crap from his mouth.

"Movies are not real!" the old smoke shouted over the kid's laughter, throwing a now bent and broken cigarette to the ground, still lit. "Your parents must be ashamed of you!"

The kid only continued to laugh before eventually 'calming down' and just wandered out into the store and wander around there; the old man's burning cigarette didn't go unnoticed, and on of the survivors called him out on it.

"Hey old man! That's how fires get started!" he yelled, pointing a finger at the burning butt. "The sprinkler system probably won't work, and the fire department won't come and help us, so put it out before you burn the place down!"

"I don't care...if it bothers you that much, put it out yourself!" the man yelled and started storming off.

"You must be going senile, you old fart!" the man growled as he stomped out the cigarette himself, and the man quickly whipped around.

"I heard that, you little shit!"

Like I give a damn!"

And thus started a new fight among the survivors; by this time, the elderly couple had decided on their own course of action, and were starting to walk away.

"Where are you two going?" the woman asked, noticing them start to leave while keeping out of the new argument.

"Oh, well, we just thought it would be good if we got some fresh air on the roof for a little bit." the man replied, his arm resting on his wife's shoulders; hearing no complains or reasons to stay, they started off again.

"How can you two be so level headed at a time like this...?" the woman asked herself more as she watched the two calmly leave the store on their own while the fight that had escalated and consumed the rest of the survivors.

* * *

"Asami-san!" Kouta yelled, finally having caught up with the police officer after she had ran out on them; he had calmed down after his outburst with Kaede, but and he was quick to find out Asami had not yet done the same yet. "Where are you going-?"

"Don't try to act like a good person all of a sudden, you four-eyed fat ass!" Asami's words cut Kouta deeply, leaving him stunned and still; before he could even utter a word, Asami lashed out again. "Asami just needs Asami, so leave her alone, worthless pig!"

Before he could recover from the unexpected verbal abuse, Asami ran off once more; this time, he didn't have the will to run after her again.

He stood there in disbelief for a minute or two before starting to drift off without a destination; just walking through the mall aimlessly, lost in his mind over what he just endured. He was use to those kind of harsh words being thrown at him by now from all the teasing and bullying he received all throughout his schooling from people he knew, and even on the streets by people he didn't even know; but this...

This time, it hurt like never before, because it came from someone who had shown affection to him, and they weren't meant as a joke, but for what were; a harsh insult.

He had lost time at how long he was wondering; it could have been hours or even just a few minutes, but it was really the latter, and the rest of the group, including both dogs but minus Rei, Kaede, and still missing Shizuka found him. It was Alice running up to him that pulled him out of his daze, and Takashi calling his name that had pulled his attention to the others.

"Kouta..." Takashi waited until the gun otaku had fully focused and was listening before continuing. "Tomorrow...we're leaving tomorrow."

"...that's pretty sudden, don't you think?" Kouta asked, back to his old self in no time, more or less.

"If you disagree, then say so!" Saya yelled out harshly, helping whip the otaku back into shape as well. "And by the way, the other group heard what the police woman said. You know what that means, right?"

By the look on Kouta's face, Saya could tell he understood, but she said it just to make sure he and the others knew just how important it was.

"Now they know no one's going to come help them. They know the police are useless now, and are bound to start panicking sooner or later." Saya reiterated. "We need to get out of here before that happens."

"I understand. We'll need to start packing up what we're taking with us, right?" he asked.

"That's right; we already have a good amount of things we've collected, and we're going to find Shizuka-sensei to tell her as well. Then we're going to get the rest of our stuff." Takashi spoke up, practicing taking the role of the leader, and since that was the case, he kept the most recent lesson he learned in mind. "Saya, please go and get Shizuka-sensei with Alice-chan, and Saeko, find Kaede and Rei. Then we'll all meet up at the cafe after Kouta and I go get the rest of our stuff we hid."

"I suppose..." Saya replied with a light smile. "Let's go, munchkin. We have a job to do."

With that, Saya and Alice headed out, already knowing where to start looking for their nurse, while hoping she was done with the operation on the kid. Takashi and Kouta didn't waste time either and started in the opposite direction. It was already nearing dusk, and in a few short hours it would be night where they wouldn't be able to work very well thanks to the lack of very many lights, and the fact they didn't want the other group to find out flashlights still worked, or that they were 'stealing' stuff from the mall for themselves.

Takashi and Kouta were silent on their walk to the same place where they had hidden their guns, the lingerie store on the second floor. Although the majority of the guns and ammo had been already removed from the hiding spot, there was still Saya's Luger P08 her mother had given her, as well as both Kouta's vest, and Takashi's shoulder harness to retrieve.

Walking at a brisk pace with a sense of urgency, Kouta and Takashi reached the store quite quickly and went straight for the plus size area; they went straight to the familiar sale's bin and made no effort this time to hide that they were there. They pulled the underwear from from it and didn't bother to put it back, making sure they got everything from it.

The silence continued between them while they put on their vest and harness respectively for a short while longer; after getting his vest on, Kouta had opened one of the pockets and pulled out a full magazine before loading it into the AR-10.

"I though Saya used all the bullets we had for that" Takashi commented, Kouta's action reminding him to make sure his Benelli was fully loaded.

"I keep a few extra mags with me that I forgot to mention...but at this rate, ammo's going to become a problem." Kouta replied, patting the pocket he had pulled the magazine from, and frowned noticeably as he shared the biggest problem in their near future. "We've been getting lucky and getting out hands on a lot of rifle rounds, but between me, Kaede and Miyamoto-san, I don't know how long they will last. On top of that, how many shotgun shells do you have left?"

"About thirty on me..." Takashi replied after a second, doing a quick estimate after looking into the pouch that held his ammo. "And I don't remember how many were in the truck...what should we do?"

"Well, it's obvious we need to find some more..." Kouta replied thoughtfully and then sighed. "I don't think the SDF would give us any, even if we find them, and going to the police station...well, we already know about that."

"Maybe a gun shop?" Takashi offered hopefully. "I think there's one on the south side of town."

"It's probably been looted already, so we shouldn't hope for much if we got there." Kouta replied shortly, and another silence fell over them; this time though, it was short lived.

"Hey, Kouta. I can understand why you're in a bad mood, but..."

"But what!" Kouta snapped back, turning on Takashi.

"If there's anything you want to say, say it. I don't want to be your enemy, and neither does anybody else!" Takashi replied firmly. "I'm sure we'd all rather keep our lives."

Kouta's face faltered at that and he inevitably smiled.

"You give up pretty easily, Takashi." Kouta replied with a light snicker.

"I guess I do, huh?" Takashi laughed lightly, and made a mental checklist, making sure they had everything from the sale's bin. "That's everything, right? We should start heading back now."

Kouta greed, since there was little point in them sticking around the store without it looking odd, and started back to their original meeting place; the cafe wasn't far, so they the first ones to get there. That being the case, Kouta and Takashi took it on themselves to check the things they had gathered and if the other survivors had interfered while they 'occupied' the cafe.

Luckily, while there was signs the shop had been searched, nothing of value had been taken or lost; the food supply that had been given to them was untouched, and many of the things they had gathered like the flashlights and batteries had been left alone. It looked like the others were still unaware of battery powered items still worked, which was a plus for them.

Rei, Kaede, and Saeko were the first to show up after Takashi and Kouta, both Rei and Kaede were armed with their M1 and WA2000 respectively; Takashi noted Kaede had a dark colored cloth wrapped around his right hand.

He refrained from bringing it up just yet, though he did make Kaede aware that he knew about it by making eye contact with him and then looking at his hand. Kouta, too, had noticed, back acted as he didn't, and made himself busy with making a mental checklist of their equipment they gathered from the mall.

Now they were waiting for Saya and Alice to come back with the nurse, if she was done with her task. While they were waiting, Rei took it upon herself to prepare refreshments again with what they had available to them at the store.

The question as to whether Shizuka was done with the operation or not was soon answered; they were able to hear Shizuka and Alice before either of them actually showed up. Alice was all over the nurse who had been absent for most of the day while Saya lead them, looking plenty annoyed with the other two; trotting along with them were the two dogs Zeke and Yuki.

"How did it go, Shizuka-sensei?" Takashi was the first to ask when they were close enough to the cafe to speak with.

"Well, the operation was successful, and things look fine for now..." Shizuka replied while making her way over to one of the tables, obviously drained, physically and probably mentally, but kept her best from letting it show, although failing anyways. "It all depends now on how well the incision and stitches are taken care of. I did leave the necessary antibiotics and directions on how to use them, but I'd like to keep an eye on him-"

"That may be impossible, Shizuka-sensei." Saya said as soon as those words were out of the nurse's mouth; before she could say anymore, Takashi rose his hand to silence her.

"Listen, Shizuka-sensei. Things are getting bad here...a lot of things happened while you were busy, let's just leave it at that for now." Takashi explained, getting to the point and leaving the details for later. "To put it simply; we're leaving the mall tomorrow."

"W-what? Why? What happened?" the nurse was shocked to hear such news when she had been under the impression everything was fine, or at least bearable between the two groups; although she partially understood the hostility between them and the other group, she never expected it to escalate to the point where one group would be pushed out, and definitely not this soon.

"The authority holding them together has crumbled, and they all know it now." Saya explained simply for Shizuka. "So now, there's nothing holding them back from taking action against us, who they resent for...various reasons. Let's just leave it at that for now."

Although there were plenty of questions Shizuka had and things she didn't understand, sh took Saya's advice and kept them inside, assuring herself that she would be filled in, but apparently they didn't have time at the moment. But there was one question she just had to ask.

"Then, if we're leaving tomorrow, what are we going to do next?" the question came from Shizuka's mouth slowly as she was unsure if she should ask the question, even if the answer was already known.

"Look for Rei's, Kaede's, and my own parents of course." Takashi replied confidently.

"And then? After that? Or what if we don't find them at your houses?"

Such a simple question from the air headed nurse had caused Takashi to go silent. That hesitation proved to raise a few problems in it's own, first and foremost being making a proper plan, instead of just having goals and working towards them.

"We need to set up a detailed plan before we go anywhere." Saeko, who had been standing off to the side alone for awhile now, was the one to address the problem verbally, and while still sounding harsh went easy on Takashi and looked upon everyone equally for a plan. "We've made plenty of short-term plans, but none of them went according to what we thought; in other words, we can't always count on things working out like we want."

"I agree with Busujima-senpai." Saya added in. "We should also make a plan B, in case things go wrong."

"Right; our current goal is to make sure Takashi's, Himoura-kun's and Miyamoto-kun's parents are all alright, but we also need to plan out stops for anything else we may need along the way...right? I'm sure ammunition for the guns will become a problem in the near future."

"Right...that can become a problem real soon." Kouta confirmed Saeko's thought. "Especially with Kaede, Miyamoto-san, and myself using the 7.62 NATO rounds; those will go fast. And we're already low on shotgun shells, and the other guns don't have much ammo to beginning."

"About the ammo..." Rei started up, raising the M1 slightly to bring attention to it. "I can use my gun like a spear, so even without ammo, I should be fine..."

"Without a gun with ammo, I'm pretty useless; I can't fight like you or Busujima-senpai." Kouta spoke with a sincere smile before Rei got ahead of herself.

"O-oh, I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean-" Rei gasped, but Kouta shook his head with the same smile.

"Don't sweat the small stuff. Everyone has their limits to what they can and can't do, and I understand my own." Kouta replied. "It's no big deal really."

"So back to what we were saying..." Saya muttered under her breath, but loud enough for the other to hear. "So we'll be needing more ammo relatively soon; any idea were we'd get anymore? There's no doubt that most if not all the gun shops in Japan have been raided by now, so looking for one would be pointless."

"We might just have to stretch out our ammo until we can find someplace." Kaede said, adding in to the conversation. "It's possible the Self Defense Force will be willing to arm and supply certain civilians if they can't evacuate them, but it's not something we can count on. That, and actually running into the SDF; from what it looks like, they haven't made many attempts for evacuation missions inside the area effected by the E.M.P. yet."

"Maybe we'll find someone like Shizuka-sensei's friend, who has a small stock pile?" Rei said, hopefully.

"Not likely. Stuff like that is illegal in Japan, and the few gun owners here have to keep their registered, so there probably wouldn't be much even if we did find ammo." Kouta replied with a shake of his head; it had been extremely lucky they had stumbled upon those guns, and it was pretty much impossible for them to do it again.

"Even so, every little bit should help. We'll keep looking for ammo when we can, but we'll just have to do what Kaede mentioned, and try and make what we have last as long as we can." Takashi said, making the decision on the matter. "As for plans of what we're going to do, tomorrow as early as we can Kouta and I will check things outside from the roof, and then we'll head out the back and head back to the truck."

"The first thing we're going to do is go to your homes and see if your parents are there, right?" Saeko added, the plan slowly coming together. "But in the case that they aren't there..."

"We should do a sweep of the immediate area around the houses, and then move on to the next likely place." Kouta finished for her. "Like where they work, any nearby hotspots for survivors, places like that."

"But what if they're not there either?" Shizuka inquired; again, her simple question that had little thought behind it had a great impact, this time only on the three who's parents they were looking for.

"If that happens..." Takashi started, clenching his fists; though he knew what he was going to say, he just couldn't bring himself to say it.

"I don't really want to think about it, but if that happens..." Rei continued for him, already having the same thought process; it was painful for her to say as well, but she had already come to terms with it back at the police station. "If that happens, we'll end the search there, and we'll just do our best to stay alive."

Even Kaede had already thought about this, and agreed with the other two; they couldn't afford to risk everything while looking for someone who may already be evacuated out of the area. Though they kept themselves from thinking them as dead and part of the hordes of _them _already, that was also a possibility they considered.

To show he accepted ending the search for their parents if it came down to that, Kaede nodded briefly.

"Are you sure? Giving up like that so quickly?" Saya asked, speaking to all three of them.

"We're not giving up on them!" Rei corrected. "We just...have other things to worry about."

"If it comes to that, it'll just become a matter of adapting to our surroundings...we may even have to ditch the truck eventually and continue on foot." Saeko said before pausing and took a breath like she was about to say something else, but hesitated for a moment. "Hirano-kun, how should we...mobilize? I believe that's the correct military term for what I mean..."

Even though Saeko wasn't confident she was using the term right, it was all that was needed to put Kouta in his military mode.

"R.O.E.; rules of engagement!" he responded in a matter-of-fact tone with his back straight and gripping his AR-10 professionally. "The first order of business is to find and join up with Takashi, Kaede, and Miyamoto-san's parents! We need to act suitably to accomplish that! To reach our goal, we'll have to mobilize like a Special Forces unit and infiltrate the enemy's territory undetected."

"So basically, avoid _them _at all costs." Saya summed it all up to be understood much easier. "And if we run into _them..._"

"Run away!" Alice piped up cheerfully, having at least followed that train of though. "Even if you can't run-"

"You shouldn't react by screaming or shooting, since we need to conserve ammunition." Shizuka finished, also proud of following that simple thought to the end.

"It sounds difficult even if the plan is simple." Rei mumbled, looking to the floor with worry written all over her face. "I feel so bad making everyone come with us..."

"I know I've said it before, but from here on out, it's just for us three." Takashi said, referring to himself, Rei and Kaede who's parents were somewhere out there. "You guys have no reason to stay with us!"

"That's not going to work." Saya replied with a sigh and a shrug of her shoulders.

"Takashi-nii-chan, you know that doesn't change anything!" Alice said as well.

"It's scary out there, but I'd rather go out there and face _them _then be separated from you all." Shizuka chimed in.

"Same here; there'd be no point in staying here for me" Kouta added.

"Looks like we'll be accompanying you for awhile longer" Saeko spoke with a soft tone, smiling to Takashi and silently confirmed she'd stay by his side.

The group's resolution was touching to the three, especially to Rei; she couldn't help but to tear up. Just their will to keep together let alone help them find their parents was enough to cause happiness in the three.

"I guess you guys are right, huh..." she said in a wavering voice.

"Thank you..." Takashi said with a heartfelt smile, looking to the other four that would stick with them despite there being nothing in it for them. "Thank you, everyone...!"

From there, things kind of dispersed; all they had to do now was wait for the next day when they were planning to leave. With that in mind, Kaede and Rei volunteered to take their equipment and stash it at the exit so the bags would be ready to go at any time. Shizuka decided to tag along and help too, even though there wasn't much need for her to go too; Kaede was carrying most of the stuff to begin with anyways.

While they were gone, Kouta had remembered he was still holding onto Saya's Luger, and went to return it to her, having forgotten what she had said back at the police station already.

"Takagi-er, Saya...san." Kouta quickly corrected himself before the genius could lash out at him for calling her by her last name out of habit. "Your Luger..."

"I said for you to keep a hold of it, didn't I?" she replied arrogantly, but her usual harshness that Kouta had come to expect from Saya(especially when he did something wrong or against what she wanted) was missing; Kouta hardly noticed anything but a slightly different tone of her voice. "I wouldn't be able to hit anything with it either; plus, I have this thing anyways..."

She shifted the MP5 she had slung on her shoulder to prover her point and pushed her glasses up on her nose.

"O-oh, right. But you should have a side arm too..." judging from her facial expression, Kouta guessed she was intent on having him keep hold of the Luger, and wouldn't be changing her mind so easily

So, keeping with his previous statement, set down the AR-10 and the Luger down and started taking off the under-arm hostler for the Mk-23 Kaede had salvaged from the Yakuza he had run into a few days before with the two extra unused magazines. He even took up a stronger tone with Saya to get his point across.

"I want you to keep this then; the MP5 has very limited ammo, so it'll run out soon even if you don't use it full auto. This will be your back-up weapon." he said firmly, holding the handgun in it's holster to Saya.

Thrown off guard by his confrontational tone of voice, Saya's ears were opened up to him a bit more than usual, and got the hint of worry in Kouta's voice.

"F-fine, I'll take it then..." Saya muttered as she took the hostler from Kouta and held it up; it was adjusted to fit Kouta's larger frame, so Saya frowned lightly, but kept her comments to herself and started readjusting the straps for herself.

While she did that, something pretty unexpected popped up as a question from the innocent Alice.

"Where's mine? Do I get a weapon?" the young girl asked, looking up expectantly at Kouta and Takashi.

"A-Alice-chan, you don't need one...uhh" Kouta said in a panic, waving his arms and trying to come up with an excuse to get the idea from the girl's mind. "Oh yeah! I'm your weapon! Me! Takashi and Zeke are too! You don't need to carry anything!"

"Okay!" she replied with a smile, pleased by the reply for now and then went off to pester Saya again.

"...but for how long?" Kouta muttered for Takashi to hear, as well as Saeko who was near by.

"She'll have to use a weapon eventually; we won't be able to keep an eye on her the whole time..." Saeko said in a hushed tone; even Saeko could have some delicacy when it was needed.

"We know, but for now, it's fine." Kouta replied quietly as he watched the girl in question jump on the unsuspecting Saya's back, who was busy positioning the hostler and the suspenders she was wearing and not paying attention to the others.

"For now, huh...?" Takashi muttered in thought, before shaking his head and looking over at Kouta, who was still looking remorseful, for more than one reason. "By the way...is it about Asami-san? You should try talking to her. Kaede too"

"She called me a worthless pig..." Kouta muttered in response and trailed off. "And with Kaede...I just let my anger out on him for no reason..."

"Everyone has something that can make them snap like she, and you did." Takashi said, putting his hand on Kouta's shoulder and pulling back to make the otaku look back at him. "I just don't want you to have any regrets with anyone. Okay?"

As the words sunk in, Kouta's face lit up and he nodded, turning to face Takashi completely.

"Yeah, you're right...you're right!" Kouta said louder than he had intended to. "I'll go talk to her now!"

"Hurry up and get back as quickly as you can, soldier!" Takashi shouted as Kouta turned and rushed off in the direction of the roof.

Kouta's dash to find the police officer came to a rather sudden end, a few feet away, where Saya was standing, and looking at Kouta; he came to a stop in front of her, returning her gaze with his own questioning one.

"You know, it could advantageous if we had a police officer around..." Saya said, looking away from Kouta as she spoke like she was just thinking out loud; without waiting for her to say any more or to ask her what she meant, Kouta was off again.

Saya looked back to where Kouta had been to see Takashi now looking at her from his spot.

"...what are you looking at?" she grumbled, looking the other way again and avoided looking at Takashi's smile for a few moments, before inevitably looking back at him. "I know it's just how you are, but that line of thinking will just get in the way. Besides...you have your own relationship to worry about; human relationships thrive on one or both of two things: money and sex, and money isn't worth a damn anymore. Just make sure you don't end up doing something that'll cause problems."

Saya spoke blatantly without worry, and even looked towards Saeko as well; it was inevitable that Takashi would blush, but some pink even tinted Saeko's cheeks from the statement. Takashi didn't even try to deny it and only nodded slowly in response, the lecture even from someone his own age only backed up and strengthened his decision from a few nights ago with Saeko.

"**DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME!**"

The echoing scream roared almost inhumanly throughout the mall thanks to it nearly being dead silent inside; the shout made Takashi and Saya flinch, Alice whimper and Saeko was suddenly on guard, her sword already halfway from it's sheath. To make matters worse, Zeke and Yuki who were up after the shout started barking wildly moments later, and that meant only one thing...

Takashi looked over to the sound of fast approaching footsteps to see Rei, Shizuka and Kaede running towards them; they had just been coming up to the cafe when that yell had echoed though the building, encouraging them to regroup faster.

"What happened?" Kaede shouted in a hurry over the two dogs' barking; with a shake of his head, it was confirmed that they didn't know, and with the dog's barking as they were, there was no doubt what the out come had been.

Without anything having needed to be said, the group rushed to away from the cafe and out to the railing of the second floor where they had a clear view out to the first floor. Even if they were expecting it, it still filled their hearts with dread; a stead stream of the undead were stumbling into the mall.

So much for leaving the next day.

* * *

"...Asami's just useless. She always does her best, but she's still useless..." Asami was on the roof where she had run off to earlier after her confrontation with Kouta; since then, she had calmed down since then, but had now reverted to beating herself up. "Her boyfriend left her and she's a failure of a police officer, and even Kouta-san doesn't like her anymore...what the point of her living when she can't o anything right?"

While Asami was in her own little world, she wasn't completely unaware of the real world around her; it was just being alone made her lose rack for awhile, so she didn't notice when someone else had come up to the roof.

"Here we are; are you feeling alright?"

"Yes dear, I'm fine..."

This exchange of words between the elderly couple as they finally made it to the roof of the mall brought Asami's attention to them, and pulled her out of her moment of depression.

"What's wrong you two? It's dangerous over there by the ledge!" Asami called out to them; indeed, they were standing right next to the ledge of the roof, with only the knee-high wall around the edge keeping them from nearly walking right off the side.

"Oh, hello there" the woman said, giving Asami a warm smile.

"What about you, officer? Are you alright?" the husband said; it was already obvious to him there was something bothering the police officer just through her tone of voice and how she was acting.

"Oh, um, no. She's just a little tired, that's all" she replied, half lying about that being the only thing, but it was true she was tired.

"I see...well, thank you for everything you've done for us all. Truly, thank you" he said, leaving the matter alone and instead bowed gratefully to her; his wife followed suit, and bowed best she could.

"No, Asa-I mean, this officer didn't do anything special." Asami said, shaking her head. "It was everyone else that did things that helped you guys..."

"While that may be true, you also deserve thanks for what you've done" the woman explained, still smiling warmly to the officer.

"No no, even if Asami wasn't here, it wouldn't be any different." she tried convincing the elderly couple otherwise.

Before their conversation could continue any further, a different voice called out to the police officer.

"Asami-san!" the familiar voice of the gun otaku rang in Asami's ears, and she turned quickly to where the voice was coming from.

"W-what...?" Asami gasped out; Kouta was the last person she'd expect to come searching for her, but there he was, now doubled over and panting, trying to catch his breath.

It was obvious he came looking for her in a hurry, and she first thought something was wrong, but it would soon be revealed it was for a whole other reason.

"Kouta-san...?"

"Asami-san..." Kouta started before he even caught his breath; instead he pushed on, his head up and looking directly at the officer. "Come with me!"

Asami was silent for a moment; seeing as Kouta remained where he stood, he didn't mean to follow her. Then it hit her.

"B-by coming with you, you mean...? I'm glad you-ah, no, I mean, um...but Asami-" she stammered over her words, unable to make a full sentence right away from the initial shock; then, just like with the elderly couple moments before, went on trying to discourage Kouta. "Asami can't be called a real police officer, so just...I mean...Kouta-san, you...Kouta-san..."

Asami was feeling so many mixed feeling at the moment, she just couldn't get an answer out, and it hurt; she was sorry for what she had done to Kouta earlier, the horrible things she had called him, and yet, here he was, obviously forgiving her and even willing to continue their relationship. It was too much for her, and tears started falling from her eyes, trying to get her words out.

But they just wouldn't come. Half expecting Kouta to be angry with her by now, but he was still standing there, smiling and waiting for her.

"...take her with you." she was finally able to get out, smiling as she looked up at Kouta before rushing to him before leaping and hugging him tightly. "Let Asami come with you! Asami wants to stay with you, Kouta-san!"

"**DON'T UNDER ESTIMATE ME!**"

The scream echoed through the door and even sounded pretty loud, even to Asami and Kouta on the roof. Asami could feel Kouta tense under her, and she herself was frozen for a second. Before she could say anything, Kouta slid from her grip and started making his way back to the door.

"What was that!" Asami asked worriedly, and ran after Kouta as soon as her mind registered to follow.

"I have no idea, but it sound like trouble!" he shouted back, quickly making his way with Asami following into back into the mall as fast as they could.

Neither of them remembered that they had not been alone on the roof; the elderly couple watched them rush off in such a hurry with a light smile on their faces.

"It's so nice being young..." the wife commented, looking at the door the two had disappeared through moments before.

"We use to be like that too." the husband reminded his wife with a small smile, his arm resting on his wife's shoulder lovingly.

"I always wanted to have a daughter like her..." she said remorsefully.

"We'll be able to in heaven, dear..."

With what would be happening over the next few hours that would leave the mall abandoned to all but the undead, no one would know about the two pairs of owner-less shoes sitting near the edge of the roof, and the story of the two broken bodies on the ground below...

**Chapter 15, End.**

**Author's Notes: Alright, so that's the end of that chapter; pretty long, I know, but it was originally going to be much longer, but I kept from making it unbearably long. Since I already have the next few chapters planned and started, I need some information before I finish and upload them; the main being what are the rules about crossovers now? I see has a separate section for crossovers, but I don't particularly want to list it in there; do I _have _to now, even if it's going to be such a light crossover? Or can I just keep it under the normal H.O.T.D. Category?**

**I'd be highly grateful to anyone who could fill me in on that. Since I'm sure you're curious, I'm going to cross it over with the anime/manga Bamboo Blade, but only in that I'm going to include two, well three...er, well, two main characters and their families, in a separate group of survivors I'm going to have develop; yes, that means I'm taking a break after the next chapter from following Takashi's group, for a few chapters. I'm not sure specifically for how long, but it shouldn't be more than four chapters, I think.**


	16. Chapter 16

**IMPORTANT UPDATE: I will be taking a...productive haitus from this story, for two reasons: one, I'll be going back and revising the chapters I have already done, and upload them when I'm done. I'll be hopefully shortening chapters a bit, adding things I skipped or missed(namely, the time with Saeko and Takashi, since it's a popularly demanded scene, and I'll be tossing Hishashi in as well in the first chapter) and adding in small summaries at the beginning of long chapters for your convinence.**

**The second reason would be, well, I won't go into details to keep the story short, but because of issues regarding my family, I won't have access to the computer very offten any more. But I will get on as offten as I can to work on the revisions of earlier chapters, and on new chapters I will upload when I can.**

**Also, in regards to this fic turning into a cross over...there seems to be some confusion as to what I'm doing; I'm just going to add characters from the anime/manga Bamboo Blade(if you want to know anything about it, I'd suggest watching or reading it; it has a nice story and is a pretty nice read, or use Wikipedia to get an idea of it if you don't want to). That's it. And a crossover between H.O.T.D and Bamboo Blade is not as far feched as a lot of these crossovers(like the numerous Naruto crossovers...ninjas and zombies, really? Come on...) so it's not going to be some unfollowable storyline after I start the crossover.**

**Author's Notes: I don't have much to say right now, so I'll just go right ahead into some review responses...**

**To T-Biggz:** That's...quite a unique review with the dreams and everything, but thank you very much for deciding to stick around despite your er, fear; I'll try my hardest not to disappoint you(or any of my dear readers, for that matter).

**On another note, thank you to everyone else who has reviewed, or simply have been reading this fic up until now; your support, silent or viced, has encouraged me to continue with this story, even when I've felt like quitting.**

**To XeroBlitzAce:** Excellent suggestion; I'm all too aware that the chapters end up very long by the time I finish them, so a recap of the previous chapter would be helpful, especially if I take a long time between updates. However, I'm not quite sure how I'd go about doing it; should I have like an omniscient summery from the, well, storyteller's point of view at the beginning of the chapter, or have one of the characters reflect on what happened? A suggestion from anyone on this matter would be great; which one would you guys like to see?

Oh, and also, no worry about not knowing anything about Bamboo Blade; I'll basically just be using characters from it, so they're skills and everything will be mentioned as I go along. And of course, Wikipedia is your friend in these kind of situations, if you wanna get a feel for the series and characters.

**To Rocketfist: **Your review kinda startled me...in the terms that I went to bed with 38 reviews, and woke up to 41 when I only get a review maybe every other day or so. But, anyways, I am aware of this fic not seeming like a Takashi and Saeko fic. That's because it isn't; there is no specific pairing of this fic, but Takashi and Saeko is a pairing most easily pointed out, which why I catergrized it as such. And as for Kaede and Rei seeming like the main pairing...that might be my bad. I personally see their relationship as...well, I see Saeko as one to keep their relationship on the low. Like more of a profesional relationship when in the view of others, which would explain why she wouldn't show much affection for Takashi as Rei does for Kaede, and that their relationship really comes out in the bedroom...I'm sure I'm not the only one that sees Saeko's personality like that.

And as for you dissapointment with me leaving out the scene where Takashi and Saeko were at the shrine...yeah. Read the update if you haven't already.

**Now that that's all done, on with the next chapter, and remember to review with anything you think I may need to know! **

**Chapter 16: ...Sale on all non-DEAD Items, Limited Time only!**

Unlike the group of teenaged survivors also occupying the mall, the original group held up in the mall weren't as organized, nor were they cooperative with each other; they let their individual opinions prevent them from working together.

For example, for the better part of an hour now, the group of mall survivors have been arguing about what they were to do now in their meeting place; they news that the police would not be bringing relief any time soon had broken the thin veil of peace over them all.

The only two present that weren't arguing were two of the remaining teenagers of the group; a student who was sitting with his knees drawn to his chest, and the other was probably a high school drop-out and recently reveled zombie movie fanatic that carried a kitchen knife with him at all times. Ever since he spoke up about everyone dying, he had been wandering around inside the store they made their base, mumbling to himself and having an occasional outburst of hysteric laughter, out yelling about how none of them would survive.

The adults had quickly learned to ignore him by thinking he was trying to get attention, or he just simply had gone crazy, and there was nothing they could do for him anymore. Either way, when he had another outbreak of laughter and shouting, they let him be and continued throwing harsh words at each other.

Because they were ignoring the teen and continued arguing, they were oblivious to the other teenager raising to his feet and walking out of the backroom unnoticed by any of the others.

"Ahahaha! Everyone's gonna die! Die, die, die! Hahaha!" the gloomy teenager's outburst came to it's peak, throwing his head back in laughter; it really did look like he had snapped and fallen into insanity with his constant outbursts.

Before the dark teen, lets call him Daichi, could realize the younger teen, lets call him Hiiro, was in the room with him, Hiiro was rushing towards the door; before he could make it however, Daichi stepped in his way, preventing him from leaving.

"Hey, were-?"

Daichi wasn't even able to get his full question out before Hiiro ran right into him, a folding pocket knife no one knew he even had suddenly embedded into his stomach.

"**DONT' UNDERESTIMATE ME!**" the small teenager yelled out in a surprisingly loud voice; it was more then enough to get the attention of the adults in the back, and indeed the entire mall!

The adults came rushing out as fast as they could just in time to see Hiiro pull the short knife from Daichi's stomach; the blade and his hand both had blood on them, and Daichi's shirt quickly soaked the crimson in. Daichi fell to his knees seconds later, and one of the survivors let out a scream.

"Y-you've got to be shitting me!" he gasped out in shock as the blood continued staining his t-shirt darker with blood. "That did not just fucking happen!"

And then Daichi dropped to the floor completely, the initial shock passing quickly; the wound was not deep enough to make him pass out right away and neither was the pain, but it became obvious the teenager could not handle pain very well, and began to thrash on the ground in pain, screaming and yelling.

While one survivor knelt to see if they could do anything for him, the others turned to the culprit; Hiiro was standing where he had been, with a crooked smile on his face, staring at the writhing Daichi. He gave a twisted chuckle, before turning and running straight from the store, though none of them made a move to chase after him.

Then the other mall survivors started panicking, Daichi's screams and thrashing making the wound seem more serious than it really was.

"That little asshole actually stabbed him!"

"What should we do?"

What should we do! He's in pain!"

"W-we need to wrap it up! Q-quickly!"

"How! If you know so much, why don't you do it?"

Seeing as how the group was quickly deteriorating into another argument, even if Daichi's screams pierced their argument and how no one made a move to help the teenager, one of them quickly darted out the way Hiiro had fled.

"Where the hell do you think you're running off too!" the survivor heard behind him.

"I'm gonna get that nurse...!" he yelled back without pausing or turning back to the others; it was more than enough to get them to shut up for the time being.

That time where the adults had started slipping into an argument was more than enough time for the runaway teenager Hiiro to get to the first floor and to the emergency exits to the outside; all the while, mumbling to himself. Unlike Daichi who was only acting like he had gone insane because he could with society as it was known crumbling, Hiiro had truly gone off the deep end, and went crazy.

"I won't lose. I won't lose to those monsters out there...I won't lose." he muttered over and over again to himself as he made his way to the door with only the short folding knife in his hand, still dripping blood from earlier.

Without hesitation or any remorse for what the consequences would be for the others taking refuge in the mall, he threw open the door to the undead-infested outside; _they _were already on alert for any sounds thanks to the inhuman yell Hiiro had produced echoing even outside, and if the door banging against the wall when he threw it open wasn't bad enough...

"I...I can do it! Come and get me if you can!" he yelled at the top of his lungs at the zombies limping around just yards away; _they _quickly took the invitation, and went straight for Hiiro.

His crazed slashing at the undead proved very useless, and in a blink of an eye _they _overpowered the teen, and began ripping him apart; as soon as he had stopped screaming, less and less of the undead stumbled to their knees to get a piece of him, and instead started stumbling into the opening in the wall _they _had a difficulty getting past.

Even if _they _were unaware of each other, _they _were still able to pour into the mall in a matter of seconds, and venture inside on the first floor to look for more prey, and it wasn't long for _them _to find it.

Luckily for the survivor that had run out of the store to look for the nurse, he was on the second floor, but by no means did that mean he ignored the fact the things they were trying to keep outside were now inside.

"_They're _here..." he muttered in disbelief, turning back to where he had just come from; the reality of what that meant hit him finally, and he panicked. "Oh my god, _they're _inside the mall! _They're _coming in through the emergency exit!"

Those words were quick to alert the adults, and they all rushed out of the store, leaving Daichi behind(much to his displeasure) to confirm; the undead were indeed inside, and _their _numbers were increasing and spreading all over the first floor. Just like they were quick to argue, each of the adults were also quick to try and take command; only in times like this and where their orders were logical was someone temporarily put into a leader role in the mall group...

"Grab that furniture over there and move it over here!" one quickly yelled, trying to put himself in the leader position; of course, his attempt was met with resistance.

"What the hell do we need it for!" another quickly questioned; luckily, the first survivor already had part of a plan going in his mind.

"We're going to block off the stairs with it!" he quickly explained to those who were reluctant to agree; others had already done so, so he was helping move large pieces of furniture towards the stairs while he spoke. "We have to abandon the first floor completely! We have no choice now!"

While the others struggled to get the stairs blocked off with the furniture, the survivor that had originally gone to get the nurse for Daichi's stab wound had started off again; as it turned out, he was the one who had the opinion of staying with the other group of teenagers, and now he was more concerned with getting their help in this latest crisis then having the wound tend to.

He didn't get very far though, before he ran into something; it was enough to knock him down, but it had felt soft on impact; the high school nurse Marikawa Shizuka's huge breasts jiggled from the impact of the man running into her chest, making her step back in surprise.

It wasn't only the nurse there, but the whole gang, including the police officer, the two dogs, and the child, standing just feet from where the man had fallen; they all were obviously aware of the problem of the undead infesting the mall as well, as a few of them were looking down at _them _spreading across the first floor, and all of them were armed with the acceptation of the nurse and child.

In the face of their to-be saviors, the man quickly tried getting everything out, but it ended up in broken, jumbled words.

"B-big trouble-there was a knife-_they're _inside-kid bleeding-!" jumbled out of his mouth in a matter of seconds; that plus him panting made any message that he was trying to get across was lost on the others.

The one with the sword, Busujima Saeko swiftly moved up to him as he continued trying to get his story out in a panic, and grabbed his shoulder roughly, silencing him.

"Get a hold of yourself and tell us what happened, man!" she yelled; that seemed to work somewhat, but his mouth kept moving, and he still couldn't get a comprehensible sentence out. "Take three deep breaths and start over!"

So he did, and was able to convey the whole story to the teenagers while the other survivors worked on the makeshift barricade on the stairs; his story stopped at when he had noticed the creatures entering the first floor, so they were left to infer what the other survivors were doing on their own.

"Looks like they're abandoning the first floor, and making a barricade with furniture to make the second safe." Saya guessed right on the dot, speaking just loud enough for the others to hear, and getting the man's confirmation as to her thoughts before taking a look around the mall; just from where she stood, she could see four other alternate stairwells, and not to mention service stairwells made her continue in the way she did. "It's a good idea, but it won't do shit! There's not enough time or able people to block _all _the stair ways, and maybe not even enough furniture; we need to get out of there! There's an emergency exit on the second floor that leads to a fire escape we should take."

"Ugh...I'm afraid of highs..." Shizuka muttered and shivered, but no one but two really paid her any mind.

"Is...this really a time to worry about that...?" Asami asked Alice, of all people, though the child was smart enough to answer properly.

"Nope; definitely isn't!" Alice replied with a shake of her head, she and the police officer(and Shizuka) oblivious to what was going on, though they were aware.

"I'll lead; Kouta, you take the back." Takashi spoke up after getting all the needed information from Saya and seeming to have forgotten the man was there, speaking directly to his group. "Don't shoot anything unless it's to save your life!"

"W-wait! What about us?" the man said, having really thought they had been forgotten; in truth, the other group had already decided on how they would deal with the mall survivors. "What should we-?"

"That's for you to figure out." surprisingly, Asami said, basically informing the man of the other group of what had been decided. "It's all over...you guys are on your own now; you need to figure out what to do for yourselves. You should decide on your own because Asami's made a big decision herself. She's decided to quit being a police officer!"

Though that was new to the group, the rest had already been decided before hand, and the looks on the teenager's faces showed that they were serious about leaving them to themselves, the man inferred. It was then that Saya's observation about the other stairs and how long they would take to seal up became a reality, as one of the faster ghouls made it up another unblocked set of stairs, and started advancing on the group.

Without hesitation, Saeko quickly moved between the others and drew her Murata katana from it's sheath and drove the razor sharp blade through _it's _skull.

"There's no time to talk now; we'd best hurry" she declared as she withdrew her sword and slid it back into it's sheath with one quick motion.

"B-but you guys just can't leave us here to die!" the man said, the fact that _they _were already on the second floor making him speak up. "W-we...we're not armed like you guys! We won't have a chance!"

There was a silence amongst them after that; even Alice now understood they couldn't help every single person, so she kept quiet. After a moment, Saya spoke up with a sigh.

"The emergency exit on this floor's that way anyways..." she offered, leaving the actual decision to Takashi.

"...fine. We'll only take you guys along if you all keep your mouths shut; understood?" he spoke directly to the man this time; he quickly nodded and scrambled to his feet.

Not waiting for a verbal answer, Takashi motioned with his hand for them to start off; while still being loose and not as strict as any other time, they still moved into a natural formation where Alice, Shizuka and now Asami kept to the middle, while Takashi, Rei, and Saeko took the leading spots, and Saya, Kouta, and Kaede taking up the rear, even though he didn't have gun with ammo at the moment.

"An honorable man follows a strict code of chivalry, huh?" Saeko commented jokingly, almost sarcastically even on Takashi's choice of actions.

"We always seem to end up responsible for other people's survival!" Saya also commented a bit...unkindly; regardless, they all followed Takashi's orders to the letter and followed him to the group of mall survivors, who had moved onto another stairwell.

It was obvious they were having trouble moving the furniture this far, and were a little too slow in getting the barricade up before any of the undead navigated the stairs; at one point, they had accidentally pushed a dresser down, buying some time but also causing a lag in putting up the barricade.

But either way, _they _had beaten them and got to the top before they had gotten the barricade up, and crawled over it; the fact that the survivors made sure to place the furniture in a way to prevent it from falling also lead to their downfall, as _they _were able to go right over it without pulling the dressers on top of _themselves. _

As _they _started advancing on the retreating survivors, Takashi was the first to move in for a kill. He drove the edged barrel of the Benelli into the eye of one of the walking corpses far enough to put _it _down for good, but the body stumbled forward before he could fully pull it out. The body fell on top of Takashi and the shotgun was pulled from his grip; although Rei and Saeko were quick to move out as well, Asami had moved up as well, and ended up saving Takashi by aiming a swing at one of the undead who hard started lunging at Takashi last second. The collapsible baton she was using bashed the zombie's teeth in and sent it over the edge of the second floor; a thud showing it hit the ground below, and hopefully killing it.

Both Rei and Saeko were already in action by this time, slaying ghouls left and right. As Rei drove the M1's bayonet into another skull, she shuttered slightly to herself as she pulled it back.

"I hope I never get use to killing like this..." she muttered, getting ready to kill the last one that that had gotten over the barricades so far.

"Look on the bright side...Saeko started, moving beside Rei before she could thrust her rifle forward, and decapitated the zombie Rei was just about to kill with a grin. "At least you're better off than me!"

The two girls exchanged glances where Saeko only smiled lightly and Rei wore a half smile, though whether it was was for Saeko taking Rei's kill or some other reason, but the little exchange of looks made several of the onlookers sweat some.

"Uh...can I ask you guys something?" one of the survivors who, like the others, asked of Takashi, who had slid out from under the corpse awhile ago.

"Sure, I guess..." he replied with a shrug.

"What the hell are you guys!" the survivor asked, and Takashi looked away.

"Oh, uh..."

His mind may have been working on an answer, but he was watching as a second wave of undead, from the stairs as well and behind them, started advancing; he watched and Rei and Saeko more or less worked together at the stairs keeping _them _from crawling over again, and watched as Kouta and Kaede started knocking the ones coming up from behind over the railings, Kouta using the but of his gun and Kaede his bare hands until Rei kicked Takashi's abandoned Benelli over to him.

Takashi didn't mind much, and in fact only watched as Kaede quickly picked the shotgun up by it's barrel, and used it as a club, hitting one of the walking corpses hard enough to send _it _right over the side. Taking his time with replying, Takashi also decided to take a look around to the other survivors as well; a few of them were still working on moving the furniture over to the stairs since they still though the plan was to barricade them all, and the one that they had come into contact with earlier seemed to now be pretty carefree now that they were there.

At least, that what it seemed like, since he was now trying to lecture the smoker to stop smoking inside the mall; the old guy who was smoking seemed pretty oblivious too. He even watched pretty calmly as the teen who had been stabbed, Daichi, wander out of the store seeming more like one of the undead then someone who only had a stab wound.

"...don't ask me." Takashi finally replied with a shrug and a light sigh that made the survivor who had asked him the question in the first place look at him as if there was something wrong with him.

Just as Takashi replied to such a pointless question, Saya exclaimed as she saw something in the distance; it looked like _they _had found the other staircases, as well as the service stairs as well since there were way more than if they were coming up from the few stairs available.

"_They're _coming from over there too!" Saya pointed out, and then turned her attention to a few closer ones. "And these ones will reach us soon; we need to get out of here before we're overrun!"

With Saya's warning, Takashi quickly assessed the situation; there were too many of _them _to try and make a stand, and even if they could, the corpses' numbers would only increase. The only option was to get out of the mall as soon as possible.

"Takashi..." Saeko's voice interrupted his train of thought; she was standing near by with her sword drawn, though she made no move to engage the enemy at that point, but did keep a close eye on _them_. "Are we changing plans again?"

"Isn't that what we always do?" Takashi replied, disregarding any thoughts of following the plans they had laid out before, since none of them would work in this situation now. "Kouta and Nakaoka-san should go secure the emergency ext and the stairs; Rei, Saya and Kaede, you guys cover Shizuka and Alice-chan; Saeko-san and I will take up the rear guard!"

"You'll need this back then..." Kaede said, stepping forward and holding Takashi's Benelli out for him with a grin. "Thanks for letting me barrow that."

Takashi nodded and took hold of the shotgun, and Kaede went to quickly find an alternative weapon; in that case, Rei quickly pointed out a hardware store they had conveniently ended up near. Takashi put their mobilization on hold for a few seconds later to allow Kaede to find something; during that time, Alice wondered up to Takashi.

"Onii-chan?" she said to get Takashi attention, and then pointed to a bicycle that had been on display in front of a store. "Can I bring the bike?"

Takashi's initial response was to say no, that it would probably cause problems later on since they would still be using the Komatsu when they got to it, but he also thought about how it may be better for Alice to have some sort of transportation, just in case something did go wrong. Plus, though he was unaware, Alice was quite good on a bike, and had spent a lot of free time playing on the ones around the store.

Takashi finally gave a shot nod, giving Alice the thumbs up and nodding; Alice was more than happy with that, and quickly went to get the bike. She tested a few things out before hopping on and peddling over to the others just as Kaede returned from the store with a plain ax for cutting wood; now they were ready to go, and just in time. Saeko was already starting to drop the corpses that were getting too close.

"Alright, let's get going!" Takashi called out to the others; Kouta and Asami taking that as a cue to head out first, and started for the emergency exit.

"W-wait, what about us? What do we do?" one of the survivors spoke up as the rest of the group started heading after the otaku and police officer.

"How should I know?" Takashi replied to them in a flat tone, and they were inevitably held up by the distraction.

"What's that suppose to mean! You're just going to leave us?" the business man yelled out in a panic. "You're going to leave an injured person to die?"

Having taken advantage of the distraction, Shizuka had quickly gone to examine said injured person; the teenager Daichi's energy had run out, so he wasn't thrashing or making a fuss anymore, so Shizuka had an easy time assessing the wound.

"It's okay! The wound is not life threatening!" she announced, trashing the business man's argument without even knowing.

"You can try to escape with us, or hide out on the roof; I don't care." Takashi offered in the same flat tone; he had taken enough of the other survivors' complaints, and with the little bubble of 'chivalry' lost, he didn't particularly care about them anymore. "It's up to you, but you'd better decide quick, cause we're leaving!"

He motioned to the others of his group once again to head out, but was again distracted by what one of the survivors said next; the elderly man who smoked a lot, to be specific.

"I've never seen such irresponsible young people! Your parents must be ashamed!" he yelled out finally, completely ignoring the fact that _they _were advancing fast, and yelling was only making them move faster; Saeko was of course killing _them _as fast as _they_ came, and Kaede was also breaking in the new ax, but more and more of the undead kept coming.

"They might be, but we won't know until we find them." Takashi replied with a sigh; the mentioning of their parents hit them all pretty hard, since the question rested heavy on all of their shoulders.

Were their parents okay, regardless of where they were?

"Give us a break here...we're only high school students." Takashi finished, hesitating.

"I'm getting out of here!" one of the survivors said, heading to join the group of teenagers. "There's no point in staying inside; might as well head to the roof, like they suggested."

"I'm going too!" another agreed; several others decided to go along after that, but others also stubbornly chose to stay.

"I don't wanna rush you guys, but could you hurry up over there!" Kaede barked over the disagreements of the mall survivors, and over the sound of him and Saeko keeping the undead from reaching the others.

With that serving as a reminder of what was going on around them, Takashi motioned to move out for the third time, letting those of the mall survivors that were coming with them act instead of argue for whatever reason; with the Benelli in hand, Takashi began leading his group as well as a few of the mall survivors along the way Kouta and Asami had disappeared down.

As they finally mobilized, the teenagers fell near flawlessly into the prearranged formation; Takashi and Kaede switched places so Takashi was at the rear with Saeko, and Kaede along with Saya and Rei formed a triangle around Shizuka and Alice, who rode the bike she had been allowed to take at the pace to keep next to the nurse.

Far ahead of them, Kouta and Asami had actually already reached their goal, the emergency exit; assuming that Takashi and the others would be on their tail, Kouta had gone ahead and lead Asami there instead of waiting. Well, it was more Asami leading Kouta, as she walked ahead of Kouta who kept an eye out behind them to make sure none of _them _snuck up on their rear.

The two soon arrived at the emergency exit, and without words, Kouta motioned Asami to open the door when he was ready; she quickly complied with his order and threw the door open as soon as Kouta gave the order. Though Asami hadn't been the top of her class in the police academy, she at least held onto the knowledge of how to enter a potentially hazardous room; or maybe the whole situation they were in made her remember that lesson.

As soon as the door was opened by Asami, Kouta quickly moved outside onto that floor's landing and checked the stairs above and below, sweeping both areas with his rifle raised; luckily, it seemed like _they _had overlooked this stair case, and it was completely empty. Seeing no immediate threats, Kouta lowered the AR-10 and then took a look out at what they were going to be dealing with; the stairs lead down into the rear parking lot, probably for employees, but it was still loosely packed with the undead, and cars.

"This isn't good...we won't be able to get out fast enough on foot..." Kouta muttered more to himself, then remembered Asami didn't even know about the Komatsu yet; he pointed off to the exit and towards the building across the street before speaking to the police officer(well, ex-police officer now). "Over below that building is an underground parking lot; we've hidden our truck there, so that's where we're heading."

"But aren't cars not working after the, uh...E.N.B...?" Asami asked with some concern.

"E.M.P., and yes, and no; some cars had special plating and aren't effected by it, like some military vehicles...our first truck was like that, but it broke down. In this case, this one is still a military vehicle, but it was brought in from outside the blast, so it still works." seeing as how Asami was hardly following what he was saying, Kouta dropped the subject, and again went back to the matter at hand; how they were going to get to the truck without having to face the mass of undead down there? "If only we had a few grenades from the Komatsu! Then we'd be able to distract _them_...!"

While Kouta continued trying to think of someway, even starting down the path of staying behind and covering the others since he was the only one with ammo left for a long ranged weapon, an idea popped into Asami's head; seeing no reason why it wouldn't work, Asami quickly turned and started for the door in a run.

"Asami will be right back!" she said over her shoulder, not waiting for Kouta to reply before rushing right back into the store.

Having no chance to object, Kouta was left out on the stairs as Asami rushed back the way they had just come; it wasn't very long before she ran into the others who were heading out to the exit. The others were quick to jump to the conclusion that something had happened, judging by the urgent air around Asami as she approached.

"What's wrong? Did something happen!" Saya was the first to question; as much as she didn't want to admit it, she was worried for Kouta, especially since he was no where to be seen.

"What's going on!" Takashi also inquired as the ex-police officer ran past him as well.

"There's something Asami need! Cover her!" she yelled over her shoulder, not stopping once; Rei was the first to break off and chase after Asami.

"I'll go with her! We'll catch up in a second!" Rei said just as she rushed off in the direction Asami was going.

"Good luck, and hurry back!" Takashi called after her; trusting that Rei could handle it herself(considering Saeko and Kaede had nearly wiped out all of _them _that had gotten onto the second floor during those numerous distractions earlier), he once again put the group into motion to the emergency exit that would lead them out of the mall completely.

Not knowing where Asami was heading, Rei followed her every step of the way until they were a little past the survivors who were chose not to have anything to do with the teenagers, which included the middle aged business man and the old smoking man, among a few others.

Asami finally stopped outside a store with a small firework display outside and let out a successful exclamation before diving into the display, looking through the bags of firecrackers and small scale fireworks.

"What exactly is it that you're looking for?" Rei finally asked, dodging a few of the fireworks Asami was tossing around while also keeping an eye on the next wave of undead heading up to the second floor.

"I'm looking for those little fireworks that blow up when you throw them...what were they called again?" Asami replied, moving onto another set of displayed fireworks searching through them just like she had with the other trays. "Not those...not those either..."

"You mean cracker balls?" Rei offered, having actually caught a pack of mentioned fireworks Asami had overlooked and tossed over her shoulder; Asami glanced over her shoulder and recognized what Rei was holding, and nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh yeah! Those!" she said, turning back to the display and picking out all of the cracker balls, and well as a few other things and began filling brown paper bag she grabbed from a counter with the fireworks. "We'll need some of these small firecrackers too, and a few of these...these too..."

Soon, the bag was nearly full, and Rei was starting to get the idea of what the fireworks were going to be used for, and mentioned something Asami hadn't thought of yet.

"Shouldn't we try these out, to see if they work right?" she asked as the police officer handed her the bag of fireworks; Asami blinked as that idea came to mind as well.

"Right...er," Asami nodded with a bit more of a lost expression before looking at Rei hopefully. "Do you have a lighter by any chance?"

"I'm in high school! Think about who you're talking to!" Rei replied in angry disbelief before putting it aside to look for some form of fire.

"Oh, then, uh..." Asami looked around the immediate area looking for a lighter or something like it; she then spotted the old man lighting up a cigarette.

Without hesitation, and ignoring the fact that Rei had found some in the store they got the fireworks from, she ran to the old man, and snatched the lighter from his hands.

"What the hell're you doing!" he yelled out, already pissed off about having his smoking delayed.

"Sorry, but in a public place like this..." Asami spoke at the man, though not paying him any particular mind, and instead concentrated on lighting the fuse of one of the small sets of firecrackers she held. "Smoking is prohibited!"

As soon as she got the fuse lit, she threw it into the face of one of the approaching ghouls; it bounced off the corpse's forehead before going off with a loud bang, horribly disorienting that particular one, and drawing the others to _it. _

"Alright! Success!" Asami cheered as _they _swarmed one of their own, though didn't attack, and gave them time to head back to the others, and the other mall survivors a false sense of safety.

Though no one was paying attention to those who chose to stay away from the other group, they had decided to head for the roof, as soon as the teens were gone, of course. The fact that the undead were now confused and no longer heading towards them made them feel less rushed, which would eventually lead to their downfall.

Asami and Rei knew the distraction was only temporary though, and quickly went to catch up with the others, who turned out to have stopped a safe distance away to watch and wait; even as the two approached, they could tell Saya was beating herself up over something.

"Using fireworks as distractions! Why didn't I think of that, dammit!" she growled, hitting her forehead into the palm of her hand repeatedly.

"Why are you so made, Saya-chan?" Alice asked innocently enough, but of course set Saya's fuse off.

"Because I'm me!" the genius replied, getting ready to reprimand the young girl for her using the informal chan suffix on her name; before she could though, Asami stepped in, called Alice's attention to her.

"Here, these are for you, Alice-chan~" Asami said sweetly, holding out the paper bag of fireworks, which also contained the lighter as well, to Alice.

"What's this for?" the girl inquired cluelessly.

"Pipe down and I'll tell you!" Saya said before the ex-police officer could.

But before she could explain anything to Alice, Saeko's voice interrupted over her own, with a bit of urgency in it as well.

"Guys, _they're _still coming; we need to get out of here!" the swordswoman warned, bringing their attention to the wave of undead now heading to them in almost every direction but the way to the emergency exit. "Let's hurry up and get out through the emergency exit!"

The group was quick to get moving again, though the other survivors lagged behind, complaining about constantly having to stop and go for the past ten minutes, but the fact that none of the teenagers even hesitated to listen to their complains made them shut up and rush to catch up.

As for the other survivors, the fact that the undead were advancing on them again made them think twice about their plan of sticking around and waiting, and instead followed suit and started heading to the exit as well; unfortunately for them, they had waited too long, and the undead ghouls were already upon them.

None of Takashi's group spared even a second to pause for the other survivors when their screams echoed as they were overrun, and the survivors who decided to stick with the kids for the time being only hesitated a few seconds out of fear of being left behind as well.

Moving at a brisk pace, the group made it to the emergency exit as quickly as they could manage while keeping their formation, though the few mall survivors lagged a bit behind. Having no desire to try and get them into their formation, Takashi let them just follow as they made their way to the exit; the door was already propped open, and they could see Kouta on the landing waiting for them.

As they piled out onto the balcony, the teenagers started down the stairs to make room for the others to get out as well; however, the mall survivors started up the stairs instead.

"Thanks for your guy's help, but this is where we part ways" the last of the mall survivors said as he came out of the mall and he and Takashi closed the door behind them; he slid a metal pole he had picked up as a weapon between the handle of the door and the railings beside it, so it wouldn't be opened from the inside anymore. "We're staying here on the roof."

"Alright you guys. Good luck!" Takashi replied, holding his hand out to the man who had spoken up.

"Thanks...uh, hey, listen." the man said, taking Takashi's hand and shaking it in thanks; though they were a little rough in doing it, Takashi and his group were responsible for getting them out safe, and they were grateful, but there was one more thing that needed to be asked. "If you actually reach anybody out there, do you think you could..."

"Yeah; if we run into someone important, we'll spread the word about you guys being up here!" Takashi replied with a quick nod; taking Takashi's word for it, the remaining mall survivors continued up the stairwell to the roof of the mall.

Kouta and Asami with Kaede and Saeko following closely behind, were already halfway down the flight of stairs to the landing between the second floor and the ground when Asami paused, looking up at the mall survivors as they went the opposite direction; a remorseful look came over her features while she waited for Kouta to make sure they were clear to continue down.

Kouta noticed the look, and read what she was thinking all too easily.

"We're not abandoning them; they decided on their own, just like we did." Kouta tried reassuring the ex-police officer, though it didn't quite work as well as he wanted too.

Before he could say anything more, Kouta's attention was snapped back to what he had been doing moments before; like he had feared, _they _were starting to attempt getting up the stairs to where they were. Seeing as how it may take too long for either Kaede or Saeko to get down to that level and past he and Asami, Kouta pressed the AR-10 to his shoulder to aim a head shot.

Of course, his thought of someone with a melee weapon getting down there in time was quickly proven wrong as Saeko did something quite daring and unexpected; she took hold of the railing above and hoped over in, landing midway down the stairs and plenty close enough to the corpses heading up.

Within a blink of an eye, Saeko sent a swift kick and knocked one of _them _back, ensuring that a domino effect followed and knocked several of the corpses back down the stairs they were able to get up. As for the last few on the stairwell, Saeko moved just a quickly down several steps so _they _were within reach of her sword.

In seconds, Saeko dispatched the remaining corpses and let their dismembered bodies fall down the stairs with the rest of the still moving ghouls as she turned back to Kouta.

"We don't need to draw _their _attention to us anymore than we already have..." she said, giving her wrist a quick flick, cleaning the blade of blood while turning her gaze up to Takashi who was just coming to the landing Asami and Kouta were on with the others. "I suggest Himoura-kun and I lead to prevent any unnecessary gunfire."

"Right; everyone else, into the usual formation. Kouta and I will take up the rear." Takashi ordered and motioned for the others to start heading down while he and Kouta stood aside to let them pass; Kaede and Shizuka were carrying Alice's bike down, so they took the longest to get down.

As soon as they did however, the group of teenagers once again deployed into the most suitable formation for the situation; Saeko and Kaede who had weapons that didn't cause a loud enough sound to cause a swarm and the skills to use them efficiently lead with the two non-combatants, Shizuka and Alice, stayed in the middle with the least skilled fighters, Asami and Saya, beside them, and finally Kouta and Takashi, the two who couldn't quite fight without shooting, took up the rear as a last resort if something went bad.

Before they actually started off however, Alice silently held up the bag of small scale fireworks she had been given; the girl was quite good with keeping quiet when she needed to, and was catching on to speaking through motions, so she was quietly asking anyone who was paying attention if she should go and use the firecrackers as Saya had explained they were for on the way down from the second floor.

Takashi was the one who caught on to what she was asking first, and nodded to her then to the two forwards to keep an eye on the girl; overjoyed to be helping the rest of the group, the young Alice rode out in front of the group and to the right where there was the most open space.

The two dogs, Yuki and Zeke, had even run out with her; about halfway, Yuki the more trained of the two, darted off and started barking wildly in different directions. Through just a dog, she had caught onto _them _at leastbeing distracted by noise, and added to the ghoul's confusion by running around while barking.

To top off the distraction, Alice took a handful of cracker balls that went off without the need of fire, and threw them out at a few of the wondering corpses; they went off, drawing the undead from around the parking lot to that location, and Alice began heading back with a successful smile on her face.

Although the action deserved praise, it would have to wait, for the window brought by the distraction was small; Alice wasn't even able to ride all the way back to where the others had been before they came and met her halfway. Within moments, Alice was beside Shizuka once more and as soon as that happened, they were off.

* * *

By the time the group reached the parking lot across the street, the sun was already starting to set. Luckily, it wasn't as infested as the mall's parking lot, and they had a relatively easy time navigating around any of the undead and to the Komatsu.

Though, that was putting it lightly; as it turned out, _they _seemed a lot more active and vicious at night, and attacked at the lightest of sounds. With the underground parking lot echoing almost everyone of their foot steps, the undead were wild and lunging at things left and right, most of the time at one of the group; since the echoing made _them _even more crazed than normal, using the firecrackers as a distraction was out of the question, and there was no other option then to fight it out.

By the time the eight had reached the Komatsu, both Kaede and Saeko were practically drenched from head to toe in blood, while the other four weren't much better off; Shizuka and Alice ended up being the only ones that came out of it somewhat clean, mostly because they stayed out of the fighting.

But they had made it to the truck together with no one injured, no one bit; then came the problem of getting into the truck. As it had been, they were pretty crowded inside before, and now they had an extra person plus the bike; of course, it was contemplated on being left behind, but the fact that it would probably come in handy later made Takashi decide to take it. He then motioned for everyone to start getting inside, while Kaede offered a solution.

"If you're certain you want to bring the bike with us, it can be tied up to the top of the truck so it won't take up any room on the inside." he suggested in a barely audible voice, pointing up at the top of the Komatsu and the railings along the edges. "We have rope in the truck we could use, though we'll have to remove the front wheel; that can be tied to the side as well."

"I'm guessing you can do all that?" Takashi replied, also in a whisper; there was no point in drawing more of the undead to them now.

Kaede's response was to hand off the bloodied ax over to Takashi before throwing open the back door of the Komatsu and dove into the supplies in the rear for the mentioned rope.

"I'll leave it to you then..." Takashi muttered, turning to join Saeko in keeping the undead away from the truck.

Kaede worked fast as he could, looking for the rope as well as wrench to get the wheel off the bike; they luckily had brought along a took kit separate from the rest of their supplies, so that wasn't too hard to find, and neither was the rope. Thanks to that, Kaede had what he needed in a few quick minutes and was quickly got to work on the bike.

The sense of urgency felt for the past hour or so had now melted away; the parking lot may have had a high number of the undead inside, but since _they _had been attacking nearly nonstop and there was no choice but to take them out, _their _numbers dwindled to nearly nothing; the few that were still limping around were either taken out by Takashi or Saeko, or _they _simply stayed away.

Saya, who had yet to try and squeeze into the already full truck, watched _their _behavior; from where she was standing, those remaining corpses were keeping _their _distance on purpose; were the intimidated, or were _they _waiting for an opening?

Either way, this new behavior was odd and raised many questions, but most of all reiterated that they shouldn't travel on foot during the night; there was so much about these things that they didn't know, and that's what made them dangerous.

While Saya observed _their _new behavior, Kaede was quick at work, and eventually got the front tire of the bike off and motioned silently to Takashi for help, not wanting to take any chances and speak out yet. Takashi caught onto what he needed to help with, and set the ax up against the truck as Kaede scaled the side of the Komatsu.

Once on top of the truck, he motioned down to Takashi that he was ready; at the same time, Takashi was already picking the bike frame up, and raised it so Kaede could grab a hold and pull it up. Wasting no time, Kaede went right to work tying the bike into place against the railings of the roof; it took awhile, and during that time a few of _them _tried attacking again, but were quickly put down by Saeko's blade.

As soon as the frame was tied down, Kaede held his hand out for the wheel, which was handed to him by Takashi again before he and Saeko went for the truck's open door to get inside. Saya did also, and from the roof, Kaede could tell from here on out, they'd need to keep an eye out for a new, working vehicle or suffer with little room inside the truck.

By the time things had settled down inside(several people had to sit on others laps, and it had just so happened Asami took Kouta's before Saya could even get into the truck), Kaede had gotten the tire secured as well, so he dropped in halfway through the turret port and gave the thumbs up.

"Everything's good to go up here...I'll stay up here too." he announced before disappearing back up through the hole.

"Alright Shizuka-sensei, get take us out of here!" Takashi said from the back of the Komatsu, Saeko happily taking up the space in front of him.

"That's fine, but where are we headed this time?" the nurse asked from the drivers seat as she started up the truck; to her surprise, a the undead flocked to the sound of the truck starting.

Keeping as calm as possible after the shock, Shizuka peeled out, any response Takashi could have given lost as the truck was sped around and then shot off to the exit of the parking lot; even if it had only been a day since Shizuka had driven, there was still plenty of fearful groaning at her driving like it was something new.

The Komatsu hit the parking lot's exit hard, and at the end of it was launched a few feet in the air and landed equally hard; Takashi couldn't help but wonder if Kaede had held on when they finally were on level ground again. Asami, the newest one to Shizuka's driving, had a look of fear and confusion on her face, that would have almost been comical if it weren't for the question if Kaede was still with them.

That question was answered with a hard thump from the roof and some incoherent shouting from above, but Shizuka's question was still unanswered. Takashi took a moment before he was ready to answer.

"Rei's house is the closest right now, so we'll go check there, and then my house since it's close by too." Takashi finally answered when everyone was finished shifting back into their original positions after being tossed around a bit. "Sorry, but you guys'll have to tag along for that..."

"Don't worry; we've agreed that it would be one of our objectives. Besides, you guys have been worried about you parents as well, right?" Saya spoke up, knocking down the need for Takashi to apologize; she was sitting in the passengers seat with Alice in her lap, and Zeke in Alice's. "We'd have to go there eventually, and this is the best time since we're close anyways."

"Thank you guys..." Rei said, sitting between Takashi and Kouta in the back, her voice getting emotional again. "For all your help through all this..."

Just then, the truck's engine sputtered, breaking the moment up in seconds.

"What was that?" Takashi asked, almost fearfully.

"We're almost out of gas..." Saya responded, since Shizuka was looking everywhere for an answer to the problem but the gas meter on the dashboard. "I don't think it's a very good idea to just stop and refuel right now either..."

"Neither do I" Takashi agreed, shifting slightly; Saeko got the hint and moved off of him, unintentionally squeezing against Rei who got a face full of breasts for a moment while Takashi slid out from under Saeko; the purpose of that was for Takashi to pull himself up the porthole.

Up top, Kaede was sitting near the bike, with his arm through the ties holding the bike in place in case their driver had another bout of road rage and threw him off; at least that way he would be completely thrown off without a fight. When Takashi's head popped up, he looked to him with a mild curiosity.

"What's up?" he asked as Takashi took a look around their ever moving surroundings.

They were still in the mid-city area, so they were surrounded more with ships and businesses than houses or someplace they could stay, and just the thought of the number of undead out there made it a very bad idea. So, for now, there was no stopping.

"As soon as we get around more houses, keep your eye out for anything that looks good; we're going to stop for the night." Takashi finally said, looking to Kaede who nodded; he may not have known the real reason, or their next goal, but he would no doubt be filled in later, and for now, Takashi could trust that with him.

With that out of the way, Takashi slid back into the truck to share his plan with the others; there were no complaints, as everyone had dealt with a lot that day in so little time. To put it simply, they were exhausted, and needing to refuel was more than enough for an excuse to stop for the night, even though they could fill up the truck with the spare tank they had.

That lead to another problem, as that was the last of the fuel; after having to leave behind the humvee, they also had to leave a lot of the fuel they got at the Takagi manor because they couldn't carry all of it. But for now, Takashi's mind was set on getting everyone some rest, Kaede couldn't say anything without chancing being thrown off the roof, and Saya figured it could wait.

And so, after giving Shizuka the proper directions, Takashi started back for his seat, and again Saeko moved up to Rei, only this time, the pushing of her breasts into Rei's face was a little less unintentional and lasted a bit longer than before. As for Rei, she found the feeling not exactly unwelcomed, and when she caught a smile of Saeko's face that confused her just a bit.

Nothing was said, however, and no one else noticed anything between them; in general, a silence fell over the truck as there was nothing that needed to be said. So Rei eventually pulled herself up through the porthole to keep Kaede company; Yuki took her spot before Saya could push Alice back there, and ended up having a sleeping child in her lap before long.

Even though her goal had been to keep Kaede company, Rei again found it quite silent up there too, other then the wind whipping through her hair, of course, but she nor he made any effort to change that; they simply enjoyed each others company, just like the others inside the Komatsu.

* * *

It was less than an hour before when they finally reached a suitable place Kaede had pointed out a few minutes in advance; the ax had been passed up, as requested, through the porthole, and as soon as the truck rolled to a stop, Kaede used the familiar routine of using the tuck's momentum and went right down the truck and jumped from the hood.

Of course, there were plenty of the undead that were either walking around or had already gathered, so Kaede used that momentum and a swing of the ax and decapitated one to start, and went for the others just as quickly; Saeko was quick to join him, practically jumping out of the truck as soon as the door was open with her Murata sword in hand.

The blade was quickly pulled from it's sheath and was cutting through necks and skulls left and right. Takashi was the next one out, and had the crowbar they had kept with them from the beginning, with his Benelli on his back. He closed the door behind him and went for the gate between the Komatsu and the house's garage; with a few swings from the crowbar, he made it there safely, and used the crowbar's hooked end to break open the lock of the sliding gate.

As soon as the sound of the lock breaking reached his ears, Kaede finished off the ghouls in the immediate area before rushing over to help Takashi pull the gate open; when it was open far enough, Shizuka stepped on the gas.

The engine sputtered again, but the Komatsu moved inside and up to the closed garage door.

"Saeko! That's enough!" Takashi called out, seeing as the mentioned swordswoman didn't look like she'd stop and come back on her own any time soon; without a second thought, Saeko whipped her katana out of one of _their _skulls as she turned towards the gate and rushed inside as Takashi and Kaede stepped on the other side as well, and pulled it closed.

Like back at Kaede's house, they closed up the gate with a chain and lock before a mass of undead formed outside, which it inevitably would; as Takashi worked with the chain and lock, he could already see _them _heading in their direction.

But he was able to get the lock on before _they _could start interfering, and turned back; Saeko was waiting near by like he had been expecting her to be, while Kaede was at the door, picking the lock with Kouta waiting to get inside and sweep the building, while Rei and Saya were doing a quick look around the house, but it looked safe. The owners were probably at work, considering there wasn't a car in the drive way, the house was all locked up, and there wasn't a drop of blood anywhere on the premises that could be seen; it looked like Kaede had picked out a good house.

As he went to join Saeko, Kaede got the door open, and he and Kouta quickly went inside with Yuki hot on their heels. Although most of the things they were planning on bringing from the mall were lost because of how they were forced to leave, they were able to still have brought some flashlights as Takashi could see, the lights that were unexpected shining through the windows whenever one of the two got near one.

A few minutes later, the two returned, with a report of the house being safe and empty; only then did everyone start into the house. Saya helped guide the half-asleep Alice inside and to the nearest room while Asami and Shizuka found one to share as well; none of them returned, and Takashi assumed they had gone straight to sleep.

"That leaves two rooms now." Kaede commented after none of the four girls returned, assuming the same thing. "I'll-"

"No, you take a room Kaede. You've been volunteering for night watch a lot, and then things go wrong and you're loosing sleep. Kouta and I will stay out here with your dog. She's good at smelling _them, _right?" Takashi asked of Kaede, and when he got a nod, he continued. "She'll wake us if anything happens then, so get some sleep. Rei and Saeko, you two take the other room and rest up as well."

Not needing any more convincing than that, Kaede started right up to one of the free rooms(Kouta and he had left the doors open, so any room that had the door closed was taken already) and was out in moments. As for Rei and Saeko, they were both tired, and Saeko started up first, but Rei hesitated, remembering what had happened earlier in the Komatsu and molestation of her face by Saeko's breasts. But, she was admittedly tired as well, and there were only two couches in the living room, so instead followed Saeko up.

Nothing was made out of it, for that night at least, and for the first time in days, the group under Komuro Takashi's leadership had a full nights rest without interruption.

**Chapter 16, End.**

**Author's Notes: So, it should be obvious that I decided to have Asami live on instead of dying during the escape; if anyone noticed, I had the kid die off as well, before getting too far, which in turn prevented the need to go rescue him, which had lead to Asami's death in the manga. **

**So, yeah...next chapter is gonna break away from Takashi's group and go back to the Outbreak, i.e. Z-Day, as it was called in the anime. This little, er, arc shouldn't last too many chapters, and I'll be getting back to Takashi's group, and following the last bit from the manga(where they find Rei's mom) before completely breaking away from the manga. Well, that's my only choice, since I've already pretty much done everything that's been released in the manga so far...**

**Anyways, still waiting for someone to explain the whole crossover thing with , if a crossover no matter how light needs to be categorized as one or not. If anyone has any info on that, please share it with me.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17: E.R. of the DEAD**

_On April 19th, 2010, the world ended, in more ways than one; the spread of a unknown disease that made the dead walk, and hunger for the flesh of the living brought chaos and disorder to the cities worldwide. There was no publicly released reason for this Outbreak, and so many turned on their governments, blaming them for what had happened, some going as far as to even claim the governments had constructed this disease, and it was some how released._

_No matter the cause or the culprit, the disease spread like wildfire; those bit were then turned into the walking dead. No matter how insignificant the bite may have been, it would always lead to an eventual death, and reanimation. With the rate the infection was spreading, the civilian population was quickly dropping across the globe, and the governments took action to contain the infection._

_The only problem was the disease had reached even the highest levels of government, leaving only a few operating members of governments active; the sudden shift of power into less experienced hands, and the current pandemic that had caused millions of casualties in a matter of days, would prove only to help crumble what was left of any order in the world._

_Days after the Outbreak, as survivors will come to call it, the weakened United States government finally deemed the disease biological terrorism, and that the U.S. was under attack from an unknown enemy. The order was carried sent out from Air Force One to fire intercontinental ballistic missiles unbiasedly, at any and all potential enemies. In other words, every other country on the face of the Earth._

_Other countries with nuclear weapons were quick to retaliate in a similar fashion, and casualties of this large scale, short-lived nuclear war are unknown._

_Only one country was able to get off with little damage, and that was the island nation of Japan, which posed little threat to other nations, and was only targeted with a few missiles that were all but one destroyed by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. The one that had gotten through detonated in high altitude, and caused an electromagnetic plus over a region of Japan._

_Despite this and many other obstacles, pockets of survivors appeared everywhere around the world, and with or without the help of their crippled governments, they continue to survive against all odds..._

**Z-Day, April 19th 7:30 pm**

Over the last two weeks, the hospital room assigned to a Ryuugu Sage had become increasingly familiar to said patient; that didn't mean he was use to waking up in the room, of course. It was late when he awoke in the dark room, and it took him a moment for everything to come back to him; the drugs still lingering in his system also slowed his though process and made him groggy for the first few minutes after waking.

He had been hospitalized two weeks ago thanks to a particularly nasty illness that attacked his kidneys; luckily, he had pulled himself through without needing any surgery, and the doctors were content to discharge him. In fact, as things cleared up in Sage's mind, he remembered the day was tomorrow that he'd be released.

With that in mind, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and swung his feet over the edge of the bed to sit up. As any average teenager in high school, he was thin and maybe a bit more in shape than any others with some light muscles; his skin was somewhat pale from being bedridden for so long, but there was still some of his skin tone left to tell he usually had a darkish tan. That and brown hair that fell mid-back with golden eyes, and he didn't look completely Japanese.

And he wasn't; he was only a quarter. The rest was American Indian, Navajo to be exact. But now wasn't the time for many details on his heritage, or how he came to live in Japan; Sage became aware of the need to piss, but also remembered the I.V. he was hooked up too nearly twenty-four seven during his hospital stay, which he wasn't allowed to disconnect himself.

Instead, he needed a nurse to do it, and so, he pushed the call button that would alert the nurse on duty. In the mean time, Sage slipped his bare feet into a pair of provided slippers; since he hadn't had and wasn't going to have any surgery, he was free to wear his own clothes.

As such, he was wearing a pair of around-the-house style pants, basically a pair of dark gray capri style pants with black cargo pockets, and an old long sleeve shirt. He fixed his shirt slightly so it looked a little more presentable, and then began doing something with his hair instead of leaving it in the mess it had become during his sleep. He tied it up in a sort of sloppy, feathered bun, which took a full minute tops to do, and yet, no nurse had come yet.

Sage wasn't an impatient person, but he had to go; if it wasn't for the damned I.V. all he would have to do was get up and walk to the bathroom in the room, but that wasn't an option. Again, he pressed the call button, and waited to again have no one come into the room.

Finally, Sage chose to just do it himself, and disconnected the I.V. were it was suppose to be disconnected, and pinched off the flow of the drip, which was really just water or something to keep him hydrated. With that done, he walked over to the bathroom to take care of his business.

As he stood there in front of the toilet, he wondered what could possibly be holding up the nurses on duty; maybe there was another patient that was taking up their attention? But then, wasn't there suppose to be enough of them working to deal with everyone on that floor?

Sage let out a groan, knowing his curiosity would eventually get the better of him, and would not let him forget about the lack of anyone coming to the room after the two calls; even now, no one had opened the door to the room while he was in the bathroom.

He shook, zipped himself up and washed his hands before heading straight for the door. He opened the door and took a look down both hallways, looking to maybe see a nurse heading to his room to explain some reason for the delay, but he saw none; so much for this being easy.

With that attempt leading to nothing, Sage ventured out of the room; the halls were lit from the lights on the ceiling, as it was getting late outside, and were empty, even as he ventured away from his room and down the halls.

Now, that was almost explained by visiting hours ending moments ago; even if Sage was unaware of that, the lack of nurses or doctors walking around was what Sage was more concerned about; there was usually at least a few going from room to room for hourly check-ups.

But there were none; not a soul in sight in fact, and Sage's mind couldn't help but to wander over the possibilities, some more far-fetched than others and included, but not limited to, having somehow slipped into a coma and waking after some mass scale disaster.

Sage brushed the thought off as just that, a thought brought on by too many cheesy movies and an overactive imagination; little did he know that he wasn't far off the mark with that idea.

The teenager continued his search, but found absolutely no one in his search for a doctor or nurse for much too long; the hospital was eerily quiet, and the hair on the back of Sage's neck started standing on end; something was wrong, maybe some emergency or something, but Sage couldn't even begin to grasp what was really going on.

After a few minutes of wandering around the all too similar looking halls, Sage finally found what he had been looking for, other than one of the hospital's staff; the nurse's station. He was bound to find someone there, or maybe something that would tell him what was going on.

The station soon came into view from the hall, but Sage couldn't see anyone there; he was also starting to realize he didn't find any other patients around either, and just as he realized that, he passed a room with an open door. Not only that, but the glass in the door was broken, and blood was running down the glass, like someone cut themselves on it when they broke the glass. The room was also empty, but from where he was standing, he could see the bed sheets tangled up on themselves, and soaked with blood.

There definitely was something wrong, and Sage contemplated on going back to his room, locking the door, and just waiting; not that he was cowardly type, but through his years in Japan, he learned it was better to let the Japanese police force deal with their own problems.

The sound of something hitting the ground from over at the nurse's station made Sage whip around to investigate, and he let out a sigh of relief; a nurse, of course wearing a nurse's uniform, was now standing with her back to Sage behind the desk of the nurse's station.

"H-hey, nurse?" Sage spoke out, his voice coming out a bit quieter than he had wanted despite himself.

As he expected, the nurse didn't hear him at all, and Sage started towards the station. The nurse was almost unnaturally still, though Sage didn't think much about it, and just made his was over to the station; he was relieved he had found someone that could potentially explain to him what was going on, but even more than that, the sight of the room and blood had his mind running a mile a minute.

The best theory of what could have possibly happened was a murder was loose in the hospital, but wouldn't there be an alarm or doctors alerting the patients? Wouldn't there be cops running around? So many questions, and hardly any answers available; at least the nurse may have some answers.

"Nurse?" he said again, hoping to get her attention this time; the woman moved(or was it twitched?), so he assumed he had her attention this time, at least some of it, at least. "Hey, what going on? The room back there..."

Sage trailed off as the nurse started turning towards him; to his horror, the nurse's front was soaked in blood, and even worse, her left eye missing. When she turned fully, the source of all the blood was an open wound on her neck, which the woman seemed completely unaware of. Sage was hardly even able to fully asses the situation before the nurse started heading straight for him; she had little regards for anything in her path, as she bumped into several desks while she walked, completely oblivious of the obstacles in her way.

Now, Sage, like most males his age, weren't easily scared, but something like this had him freezing up; a wound like that was probably life threatening, and the fact that the nurse was oblivious to it, or any of her surroundings other than him made it almost too clear. A zombie, made universally famous by movies and books, was heading straight for Sage.

'But those kind of things existed only in movies and books, right?' was Sage's train of thought as the woman groaned out as her advance was again stopped momentarily by a desk; she simply backed up and walked right back into it, although a little closer to the side.

She continued that way until she got around the desk, but Sage wasn't going to stick around until she got around completely; finally making his body move, Sage darted down the hallway closest to him. Well, that's what he tried doing, anyway.

As soon as his feet started moving, the weight of another body hit him and sent them both over, and Sage couldn't help but to let out a yell of surprise; a man, probably a patient as well, had tackled him softly, and like the nurse, he had wounds that wouldn't normally be ignored. In this one's case, his stomach had been pulled open, and his entrails hanging from them; Sage watched wide-eyed as the man opened his jaws wide and started for his leg.

Screw what was 'real' or 'fake', what mattered was what has happening in reality, and this man was getting ready to take a bite out of his calf. Like hell Sage was going to let that happen.

With the same leg that the man was taking to munch on, Sage kicked him in the chin as hard as he could, considering he was only wearing slippers, and used the other to kick him off before scrambling to his feet and starting down the hall he had originally started for. Only this time, his escape was hindered by the fact that it was blocked by a group of people. Judging by the fact their clothes were soaked in blood, they were the same as the nurse and the man; charging into that many would be a mistake.

Even if there was little other options on what to call them, Sage wasn't going to throw the towel in just yet and call them zombies, but he also wasn't sure what to refer to them as yet, nor did he have the time to think about it then. The nurse had finally found her way around all the obstacles and was too close for comfort; the sluggish and oblivious nature that she had been showing changed in an instant as she lunged straight for Sage. He barely was able to side step her, and she continued on to slam into the wall that had been behind Sage.

With adrenaline pumping through his veins, Sage quickly looked to the other people advancing on him, and any other potential exits, and almost missed the sound of shattering glass, yet, there were no windows in this deeper part of the hospital's third floor. He quickly whipped around to the source of the shattering to see the nurse had run into one of the emergency fire equipment boxes that held things like fire extinguishers, a hose, an ax...

An ax! It wasn't the best choice of weaponry, but it would have to do, especially since the people didn't look like they would stop unless they got a hold of Sage, and he didn't want to thing about what would happen after that. So, as the nurse charge at him again, he side stepped her and tripped her(after a quick look at the man that had tackled him, it looked like these thing had a hard time getting back up) and went for the box before the others reached him and completely surrounded him while he was unarmed.

He spotted the red fire ax hanging from two hooks near the top and recklessly reached out for it; a piece of glass cut along the back of his hand because of his haste, but Sage barely had anytime to tent the bleeding wound. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw another nurse who had been coming down the hall with the others thrusting her body at him, with her jaw wide open and bloody teeth bared.

As he took the ax from it's hooks and pulled it out, Sage was only half concentrating on keeping from cutting himself on the glass again, and in the same motion swung the ax one handed at the nurse; it had been the spiked side that had been swung, so the sharpened spike was embedded into the nurse's temple, and Sage felt the weight of the body going limp on the ax.

He made no attempt to hold the body up, so the ax twisted in his hands and the body slid right off the spike and fell into a heap on the ground. The fact that the advancing nurse being struck down did little to advert the attention of the others, like Sage had inwardly hoped; in fact, they seemed more focused on getting to him now then they were moments ago.

Again, Sage looked for an easy way out; the hall of people that probably wanted to eat him, or the way he had come from that only had two of them in the way. The choice was obvious, and he took the less 'bloody' path were he had more of a chance at getting through.

Speaking of the way he had come, the man that had tackled him had finally worked his way to his feet just as Sage started down that hall. Before he could even get his body balanced, Sage was rushing him, and sent a two-handed swing with the ax at him; although Sage wasn't calling them zombie and grouping them together with the undead monsters of cinema, he also wasn't going to take any chances, and aimed for the head.

The ax cut into the man's skull with a dull thud, and he collapsed again, this time completely still; if Sage's adrenaline hadn't been pumping, the teen would have more than likely hesitated at killing someone with a fire ax, but it was, and he hardly gave it a second thought at the time.

The nurse was still down, so Sage didn't have to worry about her, ran down the empty hall. Even if he didn't stop once, he realized the halls he was heading down were completely empty without a single oddity, other than the teen himself running full speed down the halls, carrying a bloody ax. In a matter of moment, he slid to a halt in front of a familiarly numbered room, and rushed inside his room.

Slamming and locking the door behind him, Sage let the ax clatter to the floor as he slumped against it. There were hundreds of questions rushing through his head, and above all, the fact that he had just killed something that looked all too human, regardless if the title of undead really applied to them; he felt his last meal try to raise, but he swallowed it down and turned to the dull pain in his hand, and the sound of his own blood dripping onto the ground. He looked down to find a small puddle already forming below, and also became aware of the I.V. still in his arm.

Deciding there wouldn't be any further use for it, he took hold of it and ripped it out of his arm, ignoring the sudden and passing pain it caused. He dropped it on the ground and went looking around the room for something to wrap his hand up.

Finding nothing, he sat on the bed, and tore up the sheets for a makeshift bandage while turning his eyes momentarily on the T.V. set up in the room.

"Maybe I can get some information from this..." he muttered through gritted teeth; he was tying the the knot of his bandage using his teeth and free hand.

When that was done, he picked up simple remote for the T.V. and pressed the power button. It came to life, and even if the channel it had been on was no way related to the news, it was already playing a news report. From just that, Sage assumed it was something important, and put his attention into the report.

"_...riots previously have believed to be brought about by civil unrest have now been confirmed to have been brought about by a disease. There have been little words from the government on the origin of the disease, or it's symptoms, however, were are getting numerous reports that those infected are attacking those who are not; the disease is presumably spreading in that manor, and is creating a mass hysteria in those infected or not..."_

That report barely explained anything to Sage, and judging on how the man was in a studio, and continued droning on about the government and of course, the famous 'Stay indoors and deny aid to those outside' line, Sage figured he wouldn't get much information from this report, and flipped through a few stations. A few other channels were playing the same report, while others were off the air completely; he was basically channel surfing, but every channel had the same thing; something about riots all through out Japan, and possibly the world(though not confirmed yet) and a disease, as well as usual precautions for disasters. Some even mentioned the deployment of Self Defense Forces, but the details were very slim on the reasons why or their missions.

After flipping through the limited channels on the hospital T.V. at least once, Sage deemed the reports for now useless; he did get some useful information though. Riots were nation wide caused by a disease, and it all only started happening today.

Wasn't much, but it assured him that falling into a coma was still wrong; the disaster part...not so much, unfortunately.

It also let him assume a lot of other things as well; getting bitten was probably a bad idea, that outside was probably a lot worse then inside, and that every officer the police had to offer was probably already out, trying to deal with these 'riots'.

Sage jumped suddenly as a body slammed into the door of the room; his attention snapped to the door, and through the glass he could see the figures of people out there. Judging from how they continuously slammed into the door instead of trying the door handle, they were the same as the ones he had run from. They were infected with what ever disease that was spreading around.

"They should have had more details on this damned disease..." Sage thought to himself out loud as he stood and moved over to the door; he picked up the ax even though it looked like they wouldn't be getting through the door soon.

Since he was calm and more prone to noticing things, he observed the infected people on the other side of the door(three, Sage counted from the limited range of sight through the window) seemed to get more...excited was the best word Sage could think of; they started slamming against the door more for seemingly no reason, and were groaning in a more hostile way, maybe even frustrated.

From that, Sage inferred that the disease's symptoms included increased stupidity, and the loss of speech(he still wasn't just going to assume these were zombies or the undead, even if they all had wounds that would normally kill someone). Any thought of rationalizing with these diseased people was out of the question, since Sage could only guess what they would do if he tired. He also inferred that there was something drawing them to him. Well, something in the room, at least.

At first, he thought it was because they could see him and were trying to get to him, but if that was the case, wouldn't they have been trying to get in as desperately as they were now when they first showed up? And, on top of that, how did they figure out he was in this room anyways? When he had gotten to the room and locked himself inside, the halls were empty from what he saw, so how did they find him?

"Ah, dammit!" he shouted out in frustration and kicked the wall; even going with popular zombie lore, there wasn't any explanation Sage was aware of to this behavior, and there sure as hell wasn't an explanation offered in the news.

To Sage's mild surprise, the people outside's struggling to get past the door increased again, their groaning raising in anger; in a matter of moments, the glass gave way under the constant slamming, and arms started reaching inside. He stepped back, unsure if they would try and reach for him, but they didn't even try, even though if one of them really tried, they could easily grab his shirt.

That further confused Sage, but it also put an idea and possible answer to their behavior; what if they were blind?

The theory needed to be tested, and since he was alone with limited resources, he'd have to play a part of the experiment. Making sure the blade of the ax was facing forward, Sage stepped closer into the reach of their arms; even though their blank eyes were on him, none made an effort to grab at him.

He stood there for a good few moments, and none reached to grab him at all, leading Sage to the conclusion that they were blind; it also lead him to assume they were aware of his presence from something else. A look over to the T.V. that had been on moments before they found him, and Sage guessed they relied on their hearing to look for someone; the scraping of the ax on the ground, him talking and kicking the wall had all set them off, further backing up that idea and making it so he wouldn't have to test that theory any more than it had been.

Besides the lack of a need to confirm the idea that they attacked based on sound, Sage also became aware of a different problem; the number of the diseased outside of the door had at least doubled, and he could see more coming down both halls, though in small numbers.

That wouldn't have been much of a problem, but the sound out splintering wood told him that the door wasn't going to keep them out much longer, and there wasn't many other options for them then to get out of there before he was cornered.

First thing first, Sage went to his bed; beside it was a table that had a small cubby for the patient's outdoor shoes. He kicked off the indoor slippers and pulled on his sneakers before standing back up; he then started rolling his sleeves up as he took a look around the room. It took some thinking on his part, but Sage came up with a plan to get out of the room, and started to rearrange a few things in the room to put said plan in motion.

With several tables set up on the other side of the room, and another on wheels near him, Sage went back to the only exit in the room, which was also the same door that was threatening to fall in and let the crazed, blind...things inside; of course, there wasn't much choice but to let them in so he could get out, so his plan was to use that blindness to his advantage.

It was a simple plan, making a ruckus that would take the diseased people's attention off Sage while he escaped; there was always plan two though, which was much simpler, though maybe a bit dangerous, and consisted of hacking and slashing his way out with the ax, but that was to be reserved as a last resort.

Not wanting to wait for them to knock the door down, Sage simply let them in; a few tumbled in when the door suddenly was moved from in front of them, but the ones that came after were more balanced. Taking that as his cue, Sage sent the rolling table across the room, and hit the other tables, knocking them and whatever was on them over, making plenty of noise.

The entire time, Sage was holding his breath and clenching the ax; what if his theories were wrong? What if they just lead him to believe they were blind to trick him?

His fears were quickly put to rest as they went straight for the source of the noise and completely ignored him. Sage almost let out a sigh of relief, but quickly sucked it in; there was no telling how sensitive their hearing was, and that wasn't an experiment Sage wanted to be a part of.

As soon as the ones that had been directly at the door were inside, Sage slid out the door as quickly as possible. More were on their way, and since the higher concentration was coming from the hall leading to the nurse's station, Sage went the other way, further into the hospital; it was simple enough to step around the few people heading back that way, but it was a lot more difficult to keep from making any sounds.

Luckily for Sage, their hearing didn't seem much higher than a normal human being, so his footstep didn't make them go wild, but he still stepped lightly as he moved around the people, who spanned from doctors, nurse, patients and even a few that looked like they had been visitors, all with varying wounds that Sage was sure had to have ended that particular person's life; maybe they were no longer human, but part of the undead.

That certainly would make it easier in fighting and killing them, but that still was a bad idea to try and fight his way to safety, especially since, with zombie lore, a single bite could cause death and reanimation in mere hours. So, combat with them was to be avoided as much as he could help it...

Just as Sage came to that conclusion, his blood ran cold as he felt the ax suddenly collide with one of the many gurneys lining the halls; as soon as he had started thinking things over, he stopped being so careful, and lead to this.

One of the diseased men that Sage had just barely passed spun around to him, and lunged right at the teenager. Sparing no time, Sage brought the ax blade straight up into the man's chin, the ax splitting his jaw. It wasn't a killing blow however, and the man slumped onto the gurney as he yanked back the ax; in a quick, swift motion, Sage rose the ax and brought it down on the back of the man's neck. Sage had felt the ax cut through the man's spinal column after that swing, and the fountain of blood that followed made Sage pale slightly.

Thinking of them as non-human would have made it easy, but such a way of thinking would take a while to work, and Sage had to hold back a wave of sickness; he wasn't a squeamish person, but this was just...

There wasn't enough time for him to think about anything other then the people now advancing on him; though they were spaced out thinly, there was a lot of them, and the sound of the ax hitting the gurney traveled far. In the distance, he could see a swarm of people now heading his way, and no doubt there was plenty of others he couldn't see.

Sage's body was tensing up for a fight or flight, the later of the two seeming more of a reasonable course of action to take; the fire ax wasn't a weapon of choice for a massacre that would be eminent if he chose to fight against the horde filling the hall.

That left him one option: to run and hope he could get away without injury; just as he was about to turn tail, he was unexpectedly addressed, by name.

"Ryuugu-san! Over here!" a female voice called out; his attention was pulled away from the approaching crowd momentarily as his head turned to where the voice came from.

As he looked back, he saw two teenaged girls around his age waving frantically for him to come to them peeking around a corner at him; one had blond hair pulled into a high ponytail with red eyes and the other a brunet with blue eyes. He recognized one but did not fully register that he knew her because of the situation, though he did notice they were alive and well.

Taking on his initial reaction plan, Sage's body turned completely the other way, his feet moving before he was even facing the right way. It wasn't a moment too soon either, as the savage people reached where he had just been at, and continued advancing.

He didn't take time to watch their progress though, and kept his eyes on the hallway he was heading for; when he was a few feet, the two girls disappeared from view, but when he reached where they had been, he saw they had only retreaded further down the hall. He also noticed a large, muscular man he assumed had gone with them for their safety, and all three of them were heading for an open door from which he could see a few other heads peaking out.

Sage skid to a stop and started down the hall towards them again; he didn't even come to a full stop before he darted off again, down the hallway this time and towards the man and the girls. At this time, the people were coming in from all sides, from the hall they were in now and from both sides of the hall they had just retreated from.

There was some yelling, Sage wasn't sure from who or over what; his attention was keeping from getting attacked by those things chasing them. He watched as the girls turned and ran into the room while the man picked up a rolling table-tray that was nearby in the hallway, and threw it at the horde coming towards them from the same hallway they were in, knocking down a good amount of the first waves, but there was an untold amount coming up behind them.

Sage finally caught up with the man as he kept those infected at bay, though with such simple tactics, not many were knocked over or slowed down; Sage took a few steps forward as the man took a few back, and put the ax head against an infected nurse that had been leading the group, and gave her a hard shove.

They were surprised, Sage less than the man, when the nurse lost balance and fell back; like the table the man threw, the nurse succeeded in knocking several others down. The man gave Sage was about to thank Sage, but by now they were surrounded and the hall was quickly filling with the infected people, meaning they were closing in on them, and the urging from the room behind them finally reached their ears.

The fact that they would quickly be overrun was what made the two quickly go for the room, and as soon as they were inside, the door was slammed shut by someone near it. Almost immediately, the large man that had been outside with Sage and escorted the girls with the help of two others began barricading the door with desks; a mere few seconds later, there was banging on the other side.

Sage would have helped with the barricade, being a more practical teenager and knowing there was a need to barricade the door and quickly, but after seeing the larger man nearly put the barricade up in seconds, and the other two trying to put things up like idiots, he figured he'd better just leave it up to them. Besides, he was pretty tired from all the running and sudden strain on his body; normally it'd be okay, him being pretty athletic normally, but he had been bedridden for the past week.

Because of all that, he was admittedly exhausted, and so he allowed himself to slide down the nearest wall to the floor with a sigh, letting the fire ax that had been gripped in his hand lay next to him; at the same time as he caught his breath, Sage took the chance and looked around the room, getting himself familiar with the set up, and the people inside.

First, the room; it looked something like an office or file storage room. It defiantly wasn't a room for patients or examinations, so there was plenty of things to be made into a barricade, but no supplies for staying inside for a long period of time. There was a window on the opposite side from where Sage was at, but from what he could see, it looked out into the courtyard, and not out to the streets.

Now, the people. Besides the two teenagers and the man that had brought him here, there were seven others, including a nurse, a doctor, both female, two female patients and three male. At least, he assumed they were all patients, and all of them looked like they were in some state of panic; the female doctor was actually sitting in the fetal position in a corner.

He had to admit that looked pretty bad, but his analysis of the others was soon cut short; the teenaged girls had come to his side, and were looking down at him. He now recognized them both for who they were.

"Are you okay, Ryuugu-san?" they asked nearly in unison; it seemed they were worried since he apparently collapsed. "You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

"No, I'm fine, Chiba-san, Kuwahara-san." Sage replied, shaking his head; they were class mates; well, at least they went to the same school, and were in the same year, so it was pretty natural to hear about them, especially since they were on the kendo team, and them to know who he was, since he had tried kendo out for a while. "What are you guys doing here anyways?"

The girl with blond hair in a sloppy ponytail, Chiba Kirino, was about to respond, but one of the men came over to them, looking right at Sage.

"You, boy! Did you see anyone out there? Any one living?" he asked, rather rudely.

Even if the man was older, Sage wasn't going to put up being treated that way. He pushed himself up, standing up against the man who actually stepped away.

"My name is Sage. Ryuugu Sage, and what do you mean anyone living?" he replied, trying to keep as calm as possible knowing getting angry or panicking wouldn't do any good, but he couldn't exactly hide his lack of knowledge. "Aren't they just infected...?"

Sage trailed off as the man jerked his thumb over his shoulder; he also noticed Kirino and the other teenager, the brunette name Kuwahara Sayako, both look downwards, like they knew something. In fact, now that the barricade was up, and less people were panicking, he got that feel from everyone.

Then he noticed where the man was pointing; the doctor in the corner. Sage was hesitant, since there was a general air of distaste around the doctor; everyone but the nurse was keeping their distance from her, and the man had only pointed her out with his thumb, nothing more.

But, Sage soon made up his mind; Kirino, Sayako and the man all stepped aside as he made his way towards the doctor. As noted before, she was sitting in the fetal position, and as he drew near, he noticed something in her hand. On closer inspection, he saw it was a pill bottle.

Great, she was drugged up on who knows what, and yet, she had been the only one apparently that had any answers.

Now that he was standing near her, he also noticed she was shaking, possibly from whatever pills she was taking, and that she was talking in a low voice; he couldn't quite hear her though, even when straining his ears. It was at this point he also noticed the room had gone quiet, well, quieter; even before, the survivors were keeping themselves silent, so now all that was heard was the incoherent mumbling of the doctor, and the thumping outside.

He glanced at the nearest person, who was the nurse that was staying relatively close to the doctor; she gave a slight nod of her head, encouraging Sage to do whatever it was he was about to do.

Even he wasn't sure what he was going to do, but apparently he already had permission to do it; the first thing that came to mind was to figure out what it was that she was saying. So, he crouched down to her level, where he could just make out what she was saying.

However, he could only catch a few things; she was either talking to fast and jumbling things together, or didn't speak in a complete sentence, saying a few unrelated words here and there. After a moment or two of listening, the only thing he was able to really understand due to her repeating it was:

"...he's dead, he's dead, he's dead...why is he getting back up...?"

**Chapter 16, end.**

**Author's Notes:...yeah, crappy cliffhanger, I know. But as you can tell, this chapter gave me hell for some reason, and it was just getting way to long for me to finish. Hopefully the chapters after won't be so difficult. And it's not even like I had writer's block or anything; I don't even know what was the problem myself. Anyways, the next chapter should be out sooner, and be better.**

**Oh, before I forget, the revisions I mentioned last chapter. After Chapter 18 is done, I'm going to start going on a routine where I write one new chapter, then revise an old chapter, and so on and so forth. I honestly have no idea when these new revisions will be done and posted, so don't hold your breath. For the most part, it will only change a few things story wise, and mostly be altering how I did them, i.e. shorter chapters.**

**Well, until next time, and remember to review.**

**Update: I guess I should have given you guys a heads up, eh? I've decided to catergorize this as a crossover, but since it looks like no one was able to find the story after I did, I'll put it back to normal so people can see that I have decided to do it. Then I'll put it back under the crossovers with Bamboo Blade.**


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